Family soap around capital villa in Rome ended: police put princess on the street | Abroad

With a knock on the door of the carabinieri, the idyllic life of Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi, born Rita Carpenter in San Antonio, Texas, ended. The princess was kindly requested to leave the Villa Aurora in the center of Rome immediately.

With the eviction, the years of legal battle between Princess Rita and the three sons from the first marriage of her deceased prince also come to an end. Rita’s fairytale marriage to Prince Nicolò, scion of the noble Roman Boncompagni Ludovisi family, lasted from 2009 until his death in 2018. She was his third wife.

At stake was the Villa Aurora, a 2,800 square meter villa sandwiched between Rome’s most famous nightlife street Via Veneto and the beautiful urban park of Villa Borghese. The villa has been owned by the Ludovisi family since 1621. It has dozens of rooms on five floors, a Michelangelo statue in the garden, and Caravaggio’s only fresco in a room on the first floor. Yes.

Prince Nicolò had stipulated in his will that his beloved Rita could continue to live in the villa until her death, much to the horror of his sons. Moreover, the three still owed money from dad and so they thought that the villa should be sold. And Rita disagreed again.

A judge in Rome ruled in favor of the three Boncompagni Ludovisi brothers and in January 2022 the villa was put up for auction. Minimum asking price: 471 million euros. Despite rumors that the Sultan of Brunei and Bill Gates would be interested, the villa has not yet been sold. Even after four more sales attempts and a price reduction of around 140 million, the house is still for sale.

In December last year, a section of wall that surrounds the garden collapsed, providing extra ammunition for the Boncompagni Ludovisi brothers to evict their stepmother from the villa, alleging overdue maintenance. Once again, a judge in Rome ruled in favor of the noble brothers and in January of this year ordered the 72-year-old Texan to leave the Villa Aurora within sixty days.

Princess Rita, however, angrily remained where she sat. Until the police showed up this morning.

The auction of the villa from the sixteenth century also caused a lot of commotion outside the family in Italy. Politicians, academics and concerned citizens want the government to block the sale. Many Italians want the government to protect the villa and keep it for the public.