The Aurora Palace in Rome, containing a unique fresco by Caravaggio, is up for auction.
At the moment, the building belongs to the family of Italian aristocrats Boncompagni Ludovisi. The area of the building, located near the villas of Borghese and the Medici, is 2,800 square meters. m., it is surrounded by a garden and is the only surviving part of the ancient villa Ludovisi, which at one time was visited by Goethe, Elliot, Stendal, Tchaikovsky.
Villa Aurora (Casino Dell’Aurora Ludovisi) was built at the end of the 16th century as a hunting lodge for Cardinal Francesco Monte. In the 1620s, Ludovico Ludovisi, a nobleman and relative of Pope Gregory XV, bought the building and made it part of a large family estate of more than 30 hectares.
The main pearl of the palace is the ceiling fresco by Caravaggio. There are also other works of art here: a fresco by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino) depicting Aurora, after whom the villa is named, as well as another painting attributed to Michelangelo.
The palace is estimated at 471 million euros.
Caring citizens of Italy began collecting signatures for the state to buy the palace and make it a museum accessible to the public. But this would cost the Ministry of Culture a quarter of the annual budget.
At the moment, the proposal to sell the palace has already interested Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei.