If you happen to be a billionaire and want to spend a lot of money on a single spectacular Renaissance-era mansion, you’re in luck. The Casino di Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi, also known as Villa Aurora and Casino Del Monte, is presently for sale in Rome.
The opening bid is €471 million, or $539 million at current exchange rates. But unfortunately, the property’s asking price is so high that no one seems interested in paying it.
“You have to have a billionaire; a millionaire is not enough for this,” said Princess Rita Boncompagni-Ludovisi, the villa’s current occupant.
“It needs someone with deep pockets who doesn’t care if you have to spend 10 thousand on a water leak or something.”
The aristocratic home is on 1.5 acres of ground on a hill near Rome’s centre. Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi, widow of the property’s owner, Prince Nicolo Boncompagni Ludovisi, who died in 2018, has resided there for the past 19 years and told The National about her first thoughts about the building.
“The first time I entered Villa Aurora, I just fell in love with it,” she says. “It was so beautiful.”
Villa Aurora is a lovely getaway from the hustle and bustle of the Italian capital, a short walk from the famous Via Veneto, home to some of Rome’s finest hotels, and close to the famed Piazza di Spagna, the old Porta Pinciana, and Villa Borghese’s beautiful park.
“The garden is magical, and you do not hear any traffic,” the Texan-born princess says. “It gives that dolce vita feeling that one looks for in Rome.”
Villa Aurora has hosted famous guests over the ages, including German poet Goethe, Russian musician Tchaikovsky, US director and actor Woody Allen, and singer-songwriter Madonna.
“The perfection of the life of ease might surely be led there,” wrote American novelist Henry James.
Following the death of Prince Nicolo Boncompagni Ludovisi, an inheritance dispute occurred between his first marriage’s children and his third wife, Princess Rita, now 72. As a result, the Rome Tribunal decided to sell the property.
When the first auction was held in January, the projected price for Villa Aurora was €471 million (at the time, $539 million). And, despite its historical and artistic significance, no one was shocked that the property remained unsold.
“I would have been amazed if a buyer had come forward. The price is too high,” Alessandro Zuccari, a professor at Sapienza University in Rome who helped with the valuation, told The Guardian. “Let’s see what happens in April, but I doubt anyone will come forward then — what would someone like Bill Gates do with Villa Aurora, especially with all the extra costs?”
The 2,800sq m home is built on six floors and features art pieces by Caravaggio, Guercino, Domenichino, Paul Bril, and Agostino Tassi, among others.
An 18th-century plaque explains that the terrace to the northwest was utilised as an astronomical observatory.
“The view from that terrace takes your breath away,” says the princess. “You can see all the beauty of Rome, its monuments and hills. The Pantheon, the Spanish Steps … It’s the most wonderful panoramic view of the capital.”
Originally a hunting lodge, Villa Aurora is all that remains of the more than 30-hectare Villa Ludovisi estate, on which the magnificent Rione Ludovisi was built following Italy’s unification.
Cardinal Del Monte commissioned Villa Aurora before Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, Pope Gregory XV’s nephew, purchased it in 1621. At the end of the 16th century, Del Monte commissioned Caravaggio to create the mythology-inspired ceiling painting Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto.
Guercino then painted Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, as a young woman on a horse-drawn cart, on the ceiling of a room on the ground floor, from which the building gets its more familiar name. Finally, the artist completed the work Fame with Honour and Virtue on the upper floor.
“In my view, this has to be counted as one of the most intriguing private residences in the world, full of surprises at every turn,” Prof Brennan says.
Unlike other noble mansions in the Italian city that have become museums, Villa Aurora has never been exposed to the public.
In April, Villa Aurora was put up for auction once more with a roughly 20% reduction from the initial €471 million asking price. Still, no one appeared to be interested in placing a bid. Currently, Princess Rita Boncompagni-Ludovisi has invited some of the top real estate agencies worldwide to find a buyer for the house, but this is proving to be a challenging process.
Princess Boncompagni-Ludovisi has pleaded with the Italian government to buy and maintain the estate, and nearly 40,000 people have signed a petition supporting her. However, Villa Aurora would undoubtedly exceed the Ministry of Culture of Italy’s budget even at the lowered price. As a result, Villa Aurora is still on sale and holds the status of “world’s most expensive house.”
