The sale of the historic
Villa Reale di Marlia
Alternatively known as the
Villa Pecci Blunt, the Royal Villa of Marlia in Tuscany has recently come to the market
through Sotheby’s in Rome. This important neoclassical estate of 16th
and 17th century houses and gardens is one that has had many names
and one that has been occupied by numerous individuals whose names have changed
equally often.
The
Villa Reale di Marlia (the Royal Villa of Marlia or Villa Pecci Blunt)
Built on the site of a 9th
century fort, the villa was first remodeled by the wealthy Lucchese Olivieri
Lelio Bears in the Baroque style who also created a garden adorned with nymphs,
statutes, ponds and precise geometric symmetry.
In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, Elisa Baciocchi, Princess of
Lucca and Pombino, purchased the villa for somewhere between 500,000 and
700,000 francs after forcing Count Bears to sell.
Spending some 500,000 francs
between 1811 and 1814, Baciocchi redeveloped the parkland of the estate in the
English style and altered the façade of the villa with the help of architects
Giovanni Lazzarini and Pierre-Theodore Bieanime. In their main, the stunning
architecture and parkland she commissioned remain to this day.
The greatest Italian
musicians, including the renowned violinist Niccolo Paganini, performed at the
villa during Baciocchi’s tenure and guests such as Count Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk
Lothar von Metternich-Beilstein, Chancellor of the Austrian Empire State (1821
– 1848), are said to have been hugely impressed by the house and its grounds.
When Napoleon fell in 1814,
Baciocchi, in her ninth month of pregnancy, was forced to flee and then
imprisoned in Vienna. The Villa Reale di Marlia passed into the possession of
the Dukes of Parma and the Grand Dukes of Tuscany before coming into the
ownership of Victor Emmanuel II.
Charles Ferdinand, His Royal Highness Prince of Capua (1811 – 1862)
pictured with his wife, Her Royal Highness Penelope Caroline, Princess of Capua
(1805 – 1882), and their daughter, Vittoria, Countess of Mascali (1838 – 1895)
Instead of occupying it
himself, the King of Sardinia chose to give the property to Carlo, Prince of
Capua, the brother of Ferdinand II, the last King of the Two Sicilies. The
Prince of Capua had been disinherited for marrying a British commoner named Miss
Penelope Smyth and the King offered the estate as a suitable residence for when
they were welcomed back to Italy from exile. The villa, as a result, became
“royal” and was renamed the “Villa Reale di Marlia.” Described as “romantic”
but “unhappy,” the couple spent the remainder of the lives at the Villa Reale
di Marlia and are buried in a chapel in the grounds of the estate.
Following the death of the
Prince of Capua, his son Count Francesco Mascali (1837 – 1862) inherited the Villa
Reale di Marlia. Said to have been a religious zealot and extremely eccentric, Mascali’s
time at the estate was troubled and on his death the villa and its contents
were sold to cover substantial debts.
Under subsequent ownership
many of the trees were cut down for timber and the Villa Reale di Marlia faded
somewhat into obscurity until Cecil and Anna Laetitia Pecci Blunt purchased the property
in 1923. With their wealth, a full-scale renovation commenced with aplomb.
Countess
Anna Laetitia “Mimi” Pecci Blunt (1885 – 1971) at the Villa Reale di Marlia in
1967
Employing the French landscape
architect Jacques Greber, the Pecci Blunts created new areas for recreation that
included a large swimming pool, a tennis court and a bowling green. These are
said to perfectly complement the existing avenue of camellia flowers, an Arab
style garden, lake and forestry for which the villa is famed.
The Pecci Blunt name
and how it came about is itself intriguing. Cecil Charles Blumenthal was a
member of the hugely successful F. Blumenthal & Co. family of New York, noted
manufacturers of leather goods. Following the death of his father in 1914, Cecil
Charles Blumenthal changed his name to Blunt after his mother married the 2nd
duc de Montmorency.
Blunt became
engaged to Donna Anna Laetitia “Mimi” Pecci in May 1919. The only daughter of
Count Pecci of Rome, a nephew of Pope Leo II, and her husband they both took
the name “Pecci Blunt” when Blunt was created a Count by his wife’s great
uncle, Pope Pius XI. Their marriage produced three daughters and a son.
Operating out of first their
Roman palazzo and later also at their homes in Paris, New York and the Villa
Reale di Marlia, the couple became known as generous patrons of the arts and
hosts of the great and the good. In 1973, for example, the Italian Prime
Minister Andreotti met French President Pompidou at the villa and subsequently a
conference of the foreign ministers of the European Community was held there in
1975.
Fulco
di Verdura, the Duke Fulco di Verdura (1898 – 1978), and the Baronessa Lo
Monaco as Fidel Castro at the 1960 "Marlia Olympics"
The private
parties of the Pecci Blunts were equally impressive. In 1960, with 60 guests in residence, the
countess decided to organise them into teams for a “jovial parody of the
Olympic Games in Rome that year.” The “Marlia Olympics,” involved the likes of
the Baronessa Lo Monaco, the American widow of a Sicilian nobleman who was
known to her friends as “La Moffa,” dressed in a beard in the guise of Fidel
Castro sporting a plastic machine gun that fired sparks. Others such as the
society jeweler Fulco di Verdura wore a cap to indicate his status as a
referee.
Some way into his
marriage, Count Pecci Blunt met a young man named Cecil Everley (1912 - 1989) reportedly at either
Lillywhite’s department store in London, at a ranch in Santa Barbara with a
lesbian named Alice de Lamar or at the home of the 7th Earl of
Beauchamp, himself disgraced for homosexual offences in 1931. The colourful
count and Everley, a former footman, are said to have earnestly begun an
intimate relationship with Pecci Blunt giving his lover a home in California
and another, La Rondine, on Cap d’Ail, in the south of France. Count Pecci
Blunt henceforth divided his life between his male lover and his wife and
as a result she was often referred to as “La Reine des Deux Ceciles” or “The
Queen of the Two Ceciles.”
At one party, Everley, who
later became a successful painter with the Aga Khan, Princess Grace of Monaco,
Greta Garbo and Estée Lauder amongst
his collectors, is said to have asked a society hostess named Daisy Fellowes
who had just sold her boat, the Sister Anne:
“Do you miss your
yacht?”
She curtly
replied:
“Do you miss your
tray?”
The relationship
between Pecci Blunt and Everley continued until the death of the count in 1965.
Afterwards, Everley began escorting his female patrons to parties in New York
and took up with a much younger Chilean he met at one such gathering named Guy
Burgos. After he left her to marry Lady Sarah Consuelo Spencer in 1966, Everley
found himself an even younger African-American male hairdresser from Florida.
Everley died of AIDS in 1989 and it is reported that his hairdresser heir sold
the entire collection of objets d’art and antiques that Pecci Blunt had given
him to a dealer unseen.
A Google search for
Count Cecil Pecci Blunt’s descendants reveals that his daughter Camilla, who
was married to Earl McGrath, died in June 2007. The New York Times announcement lists that she is survived by her
sisters Laetitia and Viviana Pecci Blunt. There is, however, no mention of her
brother, Count Dino.
The
Count and Countess Pecci Blunt, Dino and Donatella, pictured at their home in
Rome, the Palazzo Pecci, in October 1987
Articles on Count
Dino Pecci Blunt, a man described by Montreal
Gazette columnist Suzy Knickerbocker as “the Roman bachelor who travels in
the international set,” also detail that his wife, Countess Donatella Pecci
Blunt, published a novel, The Countess in
Red, in 1989. She is described as being well known for hosting parties named
“The Best” in her palazzo in Rome to celebrate “the VIPs of politics, culture
and entertainment.” Elsewhere, Countess Donatella is listed as the hostess of
Italian chat shows and her perfume brand, Diable Au Corps, remains widely
available online.
For reasons not
mentioned, the Pecci Blunt family are now selling the Villa Reale di Marlia. The
118,403 square foot property, which stands in 39.5 acres of gardens, consists
of three main buildings: the 17,760 square foot Main Villa, the 53,819 square
foot Villa dell’Orologio and the 19,375 square foot Villa of the Bishop. The
Main Villa is spread over three levels and connected by a substantial staircase
and elevator. The floors are mainly Venetian mosaics and many of the walls and
ceilings are frescoed.
A price of €45,000,000 (circa £37,500,000)
is quoted on various websites for the property though Sotheby’s themselves
simply lists it as: “Price on application.”
When the Villa Reale di
Marlia eventually sells, it will indeed be fascinating to observe the next
chapter in the life of this house of intrigue.
For more information on
Countess Donatella Pecci Blunt’s perfume, go to: http://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Donatella-Pecci
Blunt/Diable-Au-Corps-9105.html
