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MORNING SESSION
AT 10.00 AM
(LOTS 1-199)
COUNT ROFFREDO GAETANI D'ARAGONA LOVATELLI
Roffredo Gaetani, scion of one of the oldest noble Roman families, was born in Rome in 1953 and raised in the storied Palazzo Lovatelli. The Gaetani family claimed two popes, Gelasio II (1118) and Bonifacio VIII (1294), among their ancestors. His mother's family, the Franchetti, were Venetians and Roffredo's great-uncle, Baron Raimondo Nanuk Franchetti was Ernest Hemingway's shooting companion on the estate of San Gaetano near Venice and inspired the character of Baron Alvaro in his classic Beyond the River and Among the Trees. And, for a time, Roffredo Gaetani could even claim connections to Hollywood royalty, as Henry Fonda was an uncle. In the post war years of jet-set living in Rome, in what could have been a scene taken directly from La Dolce Vita, his aunt Afdera met and married Fonda when he was in Rome filming War and Peace with Audrey Hepburn.
However, as Roffredo Gaetani's close friend Mario Calvo-Platero wrote after his death, he was one of the few aristocrats he knew who could have claimed to be a self-made man. After arriving in New York in the early 1980's with only $200 in his pocket, he worked his way up from the docks, literally, until he, with the help of Gianni Agnelli, eventually ran two Ferrari dealerships. He then served as an ambassador for the iconic Italian car-maker across the United States. The dashing Count Gaetani, professional boxer and friend to many on both sides of the Atlantic, died in a car accident in Tuscany near his family home in Argiano on December 23, 2005.
PROPERTY FROM THE RESIDENCE OF COUNT ROFFREDO GAETANI D'ARAGONA LOVATELLI
(LOTS 1-7)
A NORTH ITALIAN GILTWOOD MIRROR
VENICE, LATE 18TH 19TH CENTURY
Details
A NORTH ITALIAN GILTWOOD MIRROR
VENICE, LATE 18TH 19TH CENTURY
With a pierced and C-scroll, acanthus and floral-carved crest above similarly carved sides and base
57½ in. (146 cm.) high, 38 in. (96.5 cm.) wide
VENICE, LATE 18TH 19TH CENTURY
With a pierced and C-scroll, acanthus and floral-carved crest above similarly carved sides and base
57½ in. (146 cm.) high, 38 in. (96.5 cm.) wide