The Villa Aurora, the popular mansion housing the only mural by Caravaggio, failed to be sold at the auction.
When the Villa Aurora first went up for sale, there was much hype in the market regarding its potential ownership. The house went at the block for €471 million ($533.7 million). The Caravaggio mural alone was estimated to be worth $350 million. There was anticipation that the auction, which was scheduled to last 24 hours, would see an array of bids. However, to everyone’s surprise, the villa failed to attract any bids at all. After a few hours, the auction was cancelled and postponed to April 7th. It is speculated that the reason behind no bids could be the estimated $12.5 million worth of renovation costs that would be needed for the property. It is also reported that in the next sale, the price of the auction would be lowered by 20 percent.
Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, the original owner of the property, had commissioned Caravaggio in 1597 to paint a ceiling in his alchemy laboratory. The ceiling features the three primary Roman Gods – Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto – each accompanied by a beast. In 1621, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi purchased the property to join his adjacent vast estate, collectively called the Villa Ludovisi. Ludovisi also re-designed the whole property, including adding a fresco portraying Aurora by Italian painter Il Guercino. Since then, the property has commonly been called the Villa Aurora.
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Villa Aurora came into the limelight after its last owner, Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, died in 2018. Both his last wife and his three sons from his first marriage laid claim to the property. The legal dispute was resolved after a court mandated that the villa must be auctioned. One of the interested parties in the villa was the Italian Government, who wanted to turn it into a cultural heritage site. However, no bids from the government came at the auction either.
