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For sale, £2 million contents of villa Versace (even the bedroom)
Robert Mendick12 Mar 2009
The sight of 10ft high naked wrestlers towering over one's bed might be considered a tad outré for some. Not so for Gianni Versace.
The statues of pugilists Creugas and Damoxenos, their modesty hidden only by just large enough fig leaves, graced the Italian fashion designer's bedroom at his mansion on the shores of Lake Como for many years.
Now for anywhere between £20,000 and £40,000, and possibly a lot more, they could be yours.
The contents of Villa Fontanelle will be sold at auction next Wednesday and are expected to raise at least £2 million.
Until then, Versace's possessions - among them 19 beds, 18 bookcases, 17 chandeliers, 36 tables and seemingly countless profiles of Roman emperors - are on public view at Sotheby's in New Bond Street.
It's not quite as Princess Diana, Sir Elton John or Madonna, who all stayed at Villa Fontanelle in Moltrasio, enjoyed it - there's no great expanse of water outside at Sotheby's - but it's pretty close.
The auction house has even recreated entire rooms, including Versace's magnificent, over-the-top bedroom, so the 550 objects for sale can be viewed as if in situ.
For anybody who ever wanted to enter Versace's bedroom but were afraid to ask, now is the chance.
"We have tried to recreate the rooms. They are almost identical as they were in the house," said Mario Tavella, Sotheby's European deputy chairman and the man responsible for single-owner collections.
"We have taken every detail and we have rendered it exactly as it was. He would have been pleased with what we have done."
Villa Fontanelle was Versace's favourite home. "The house in Moltrasio is a Proust house whereas the ones in Milano and Miami are more Batman ... It is the house that really belongs to me, reflecting a mirror image of all that I am, for better or worse," he said.
The designer was shot dead outside his Miami house in 1997 at the age of 50, leaving his fashion empire in the hands of his sister Donatella and his brother Santo.
While he was alive Versace was the undisputed emperor of fashion.
His American homes and their contents were sold off soon after his death but the family held on to Villa Fontanelle.
Last year, however, the property was acquired by Arkady Novikov, described as the "blini baron of Moscow", for £26 million, allegedly £3 million more than the Versace family were asking.
With Mr Novikov wanting some pieces of furniture - it's not known if the wrestlers were high on his list - but not others, the Versace family chose to sell all the contents.
"They wanted to present it altogether to the public, not mutilated," said Mr Tavella. The neo-classical collection includes Versace's gilt-bronze mounted mahogany bed, estimated at £10,000 to £20,000. Terracotta statues are priced as low as £50.
Best of all perhaps is the Italian bronze athenienne or tripod, which at first glance looks harmless enough.
But the fig leaves-cum-cod pieces on the satyrs that form the tripod's legs can be removed. Suffice to say, the satyrs are terribly well endowed.
All for a guide price of £2,500 to £5,000.
