Andrea Ripa di Meana: “Tomorrow I’ll chain myself, Lucrezia won’t sell our mother’s memories”

“I just have to buy the chains, but I have decided. Tomorrow I will chain myself in via Margutta in front of the Pandolfini auction house. And I make a final appeal to Lucrezia, ‘do not sell our mother’s jewels, the memories of a lifetime'”. So Andrea Ripa di Meana at Adnkronos before the jewels (43 lots) of one of the most fascinating and discussed women, Marina Ripa di Meana, are auctioned on 23 June. In Rome, only one exhibition is planned for potential buyers. Andrea Ripa di Meana (adopted by Carlo, with the consent of Marina, but without the consent of his ‘sister’ Lucrezia) does not give peace. “It is a silent protest – he continued – but I hope effective. I will have signs in which I invite Lucrezia to rethink her gesture, the sale of the jewels that belonged to Marina Ripa di Meana who ardently wished to remain with her daughter and granddaughters, like the his mother Vittorina’s engagement ring. A solitaire, the setting had been redone by Bvlgari, modernized with rock crystal and other diamonds. He had received it for his 50th birthday “. Before dying Marina told me: ‘Andrea, I had had a son like you’ “With this auction it is as if a circle is closed – continued Andrea Ripa di Meana – Lucrezia, in my opinion, wanted to distance herself from her mother, get rid of everything that Marina reminds her, and certainly I. After all, it is no secret, Marina herself repeated it to me two days before she died, immediately after her daughter had come home to be written the will, accompanied by the notary and the lawyer. She called me and said: ‘Andrea had had a son like you’ “. Undoubtedly Marina Ripa di Meana, former Mrs. Lante della Rovere, was a mother over the top, she put in public and private streets and all this was not appreciated by Lucrezia. “But a mother is always a mother – retorted her son Andrea – Lucrezia had everything from her. The best schools, the music and riding teacher, modeling courses in the United States, the possibility of a first film, directed by Monicelli, ‘Let’s hope she’s female’. Lucrezia would undoubtedly have succeeded alone in the world of cinema, but it was still a good launch. “‘Lucrezia does not want to hear or see me, I am outraged by this sale’ of the 43 lots that will be auctioned in Florence by Pandolfini. “Those jewels represent Marina’s life. They were given to her by friends, lovers, by Franco Angeli, by her husband Carlo, even by myself”. But not all jewels, according to Andrea Ripa di Meana, will be auctioned. “Inside the safe there were other precious items. I remember a frog-shaped watch given to her by Marta Marzotto, based on a drawing by Guttuso”. And about his relations with his ‘sister’ Lucrezia, Andrea Ripa di Meana, he explained decisively: “Lucrezia, two years ago due to a problem linked to her mother’s ashes, blocked my phones and social networks, never answered my calls . On the contrary, he made me say by a mutual friend that he no longer wanted to hear or see me. I repeat – he concluded – this sale angers me, I don’t think he does it for money, because Lucrezia does not need it, but simply to cancel the memory of the mother. Forever “.