A Rome court has confirmed that villa Astari in central Rome will be auctioned in January next year for a starting price of 471 million euros (about 3.014 billion yuan). The villa houses the world's only ceiling fresco by the Italian painter Caravaggio.
Caravaggio ceiling frescoes
In the 19th century, although most of the infrastructure was demolished, this villa is the only remaining 16th-century Ludovisi villa, considered one of the wonders of the world. The six-story property houses a myriad of works of art, including an oil painting on the wall, allegedly by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Caravaggio is better known as Caravaggio, and his voluminous work has become synonymous with the artist's inner depiction of violence.
Portrait of Michelangelo Merrissi da Caravaggio
Caravaggio's villa murals spanning the ceiling of a small 2.75-square-meter (about 30-square-foot) room depict three gods—Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto—clustered around a translucent sphere. The painting is valued at more than 310 million euros (about 2.305 billion yuan). Of course, the maintenance cost of this villa is not cheap, and one of the conditions is that whoever buys the property must pay 11 million euros (about 81.6 million yuan) for the repair.