US-born Rita Boncombani Ludovici was evicted Thursday from Rome’s Villa Aurora, home to Caravaggio’s only ceiling fresco, calling her eviction “a travesty of justice.”

In his will, Prince Niccolò Boncomani Ludovisi, who died in 2018, guaranteed his wife the right to remain in the villa for the rest of her life, and in the event of a sale of property, the deceased designated his wife and sons as beneficiaries of the proceeds. However, his sons broke the covenant by claiming the villa was theirs.

The villa was first put up for auction in January 2022, with an asking price of €471m – a price owed in large part by the priceless, albeit unknown, value of the Italian artist’s frescoes. However, at the last auction, the price of the property fell to 145 million euros, and again to no avail.

She led a busy life, worked in different professions, divorced a former US congressman accused of taking bribes, in addition to being featured on the cover of Playboy and publishing a “scandalous” memoir, Rita Boncomani Ludovici met Prince Nicolo Boncomani Ludovici, Prince di Piombino XI, 2003

Villa Aurora is considered a unique place in the world. Built in 1570 in the Sallust Gardens, where Julius Caesar’s villa was, the villa is also close to the Borghese Gardens and the famous Roman Via Veneto. The 2,800 square meter building has six floors and at least fifty rooms, and includes two acres of gardens. There are also 28 sculptures, as well as a statue of the god Pan, which is attributed to the archangel Michael, but this does not seem to be true.

fresco by Caravaggio

Hidden in a small room on the second floor, a fresco with Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto was completed by the famous artist in 1597 at the behest of the then owner of the estate, a cardinal who wanted to “enliven” the small room, which he decided to use as an alchemical laboratory.

Villa Aurora in Rome, a building that boasts approximately 11 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and a frescoed ceiling painted by the Italian master Caravaggio, will be up for sale. pic.twitter.com/WRRrNk0Rh1N

— Reuters (@Reuters) January 17, 2022

Orophography with a diameter of 3 meters depicts the three Olympian gods with their characteristic elements: air and sulfur for Jupiter, water and mercury for Neptune, and earth and salt for Pluto. It was covered up at some point, but in the 1960s art historian Juliana Zandry found it again under peeling paint. She concluded that the fresco contained self-portraits: Caravaggio used his own face as a model for each deity.

According to Reuters, Guardian