A country house owned by the composer Giuseppe Verdi has been put up for sale, after a long-running squabble among his heirs.
Verdi built Villa Verdi on land he owned in Sant’Agata di Villanova, a hamlet near his home town of Busseto in the Emilia-Romagna region, in 1848. It was initially inhabited by his parents before Verdi moved in with his second wife in 1851, remaining there until his death in 1901.
The home is currently owned and partly lived in by four siblings who are descendants of Maria Filomena Verdi, the composer’s younger cousin who was raised as his daughter.
However, the Carrara Verdi family have fought over what to do with it for the past 20 years and, given that none of the four siblings could afford to buy each other out, they decided to sell the property, which contains some of Verdi’s works, books, paintings, his beds and other belongings.
The home will probably be put up for auction, with the Italian state having the right of first refusal.
Since 2010, Villa Verdi has been managed by Angiolo Carrara Verdi and partly used as a museum.
