Ban on sale of ancient statues as heirs feud

‘The precautionary protection was deemed necessary due to the conduct of some of the heirs’

AN INHERITANCE battle has broken out within an aristocratic Italian family who own assets worth nearly £1.8billion, including the world’s largest private collection of ancient marble statuary.

The vast wealth of the Torlonia family includes palaces in Rome, farmland, banking assets and a collection of 620 marble busts and statues depicting Greek and Roman gods and heroes.

When Prince Alessandro Torlonia, the head of the family, died last year, the title fell to Carlo Torlonia, his eldest son. He is now reportedly in a “war of succession”, as one Italian newspaper described it, with his three siblings over the future of the estate, amid concerns that some family members want to sell some of the statues, busts and other artworks.

A court in Rome this week applied a ban on any of the assets being sold or leaving Italy, saying there was a risk the collection could be “dispersed”. “The precautionary protection was deemed necessary due to the conduct of some of the heirs and of the executor who, in our belief, could have jeopardised the hereditary rights of my client,” Adriana Boscagli, the prince’s lawyer, told La Stampa. “This measure will obstruct any attempts to sell off the assets.”

There was evidence that members of the family had entered into negotiations to sell some of the collection to the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the lawyer said.

“The sale of the Torlonia collection is a risk that Italy must not take,” said Italia Nostra, or Our Italy, a leading heritage organisation.