‘We sacrificed everything’: Caravaggio villa in Rome’s Texas-born princess on her and her late husband’s restoration efforts and hope Italian state will buy it

Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi is having to sell the villa housing the only ceiling fresco Caravaggio painted to settle an inheritance feud

Auctioned for US$534 million, it failed to attract any bids. She hopes the Italian state will buy it and allow her to live there as well as pay off relatives

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Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi poses in front of “Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto”, the only known ceiling painting by Caravaggio, in the Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi in Rome. She is trying to sell the villa to settle an inheritance feud, and hopes the Italian state will buy it. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:15pm, 24 Jan 2022

Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi has the rarest of guilty pleasures: gazing up at the world’s only ceiling painted by Caravaggio as she practises yoga in her Roman villa.

But those days of stretching and contorting under a depiction of the gods may soon be over. The villa in central Rome is up for auction because of a bitter inheritance dispute.

Now she’s hoping the Italian government will step in to purchase it – and let her remain living in it – after an initial sale this week failed to snag any buyers.

“Perhaps the state will buy it and let me stay here as they did princess Borghese over in the Borghese gardens,” said 72-year-old Ludovisi, the third and last wife of Prince Nicolo Ludovisi Boncompagni, who died in 2018.

“Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto”, the only known ceiling painting by the Italian master Caravaggio, at the Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi in Rome. The fresco alone was valued at €350 million (US$397 million) at a recent auction. Photo: AFP

Born in the US state of Texas, Ludovisi has lived on the estate, known as Villa Aurora, or Dawn Villa, for some 20 years. “It’s extraordinary, and of course, it’s a great privilege to be the caretaker of this villa,” she said in her sitting room, decorated with framed photos of her family.