A somewhat special house is for sale in Rome.
The ceiling of Villa Aurora contains a unique work in the world:
Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto,
Caravaggio's only mural.
Estimated at 471 million euros, the painting will be auctioned on January 18, 2022, in the Italian capital.
Alessandro Zuccari is professor of history at Sapienza University in Rome.
It was he who assessed the value of the work, then of the house.
Asked by the
Guardian
, the Italian describes
“an extraordinary work to which it was difficult to give a price, given that it is the only fresco ever made by Caravaggio and that we therefore had nothing to pay for. compare it. "
The teacher finally estimated the painting alone at 310 million euros, and the house (with the work) at 471 million euros.
400 years of history
Commissioned by its patron at the time, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, this oil on masonry is 2.75 meters tall and dates from 1597. Caravaggio is then on the rise, considered one of the great talents of his time by the art world.
Painted in the middle of its Roman period, this baroque canvas then moved away from its usual chiaroscuro register.
The cardinal wanted him, quite simply, to adorn his laboratory.
Read also Art history: a new Caravaggio affair
When Del Monte died, Villa Aurora was bought by the noble Ludovisi family, who renamed the house to their name but destroyed part of it in the 14th century.
The fresco is kept intact but ignored for centuries, until the 1970s. It is only at this time that the authorship of the work is attributed to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
A new reputation which pushes the Ludovisi to restore the work in the 1990s. It remains in the family until 2018, when Nicolo Boncompagni Ludovisi, the last descendant, dies.
Since then, an endless bickering has driven the heirs to this spectacular auction.
Right of pre-emption
The more than 400-year-old fresco is not the only work of art adorning the interior of the house. Original works by Guercino also decorate the walls of the villa. So who can afford a house with an integrated Baroque masterpiece, for half a billion euros? The site is protected by the Italian Ministry of Culture, which has a right of pre-emption, and can therefore refuse the first offer made on the house. Alessandro Zuccari believes that, despite everything, the house could fall into private hands.
“The state will have the right to buy it; the problem will be whether he can pay such a high price,
”the academic told The Guardian.
Regardless of who wins, the new owner will in any case have to renovate the house to the tune of 11 million euros.
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