Late actress Gina Lollobrigida's estate is wrapped in uncertainty

Inside the £35million estate of Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida – from an apartment in Rome and an Italian shop to jewels and paintings – as reports say some may have been ‘spent already without her knowledge’

• Italian actress and silver screen diva Gina Lollobrigida died at the age of 95
• The future of her estate is uncertain due to there being a number of claimants 
• Some of the star’s wealth may have already been spent, according to The Times
• Read: Sophia Loren pays gushing tribute to Italian bombshell Gina Lollobrigida

Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida died aged 95 on Monday – and has left behind an estate thought to be worth £35million.

Her assets reportedly include a villa on the Appian Way, an apartment in Rome, a shop in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, as well as her jewels, paintings, sculptures and antique furniture. 

However, the glamorous film star’s fortune is said to be in a state of uncertainty due to an array of possible claimants and her wealth may have even been partly spent already without her knowledge, according to The Times.

Known as the most beautiful woman in the world in her heyday, Gina was often photographed in luxurious ensembles, complete with dazzling jewellery, and in 2015 shared a glimpse inside her villa in Rome with Vanity Fair.

 Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida (pictured in her house in 2008 in Rome) died aged 95 on Monday – and has left behind an estate thought to be worth £35million

Photos showed the Italian actress surrounded by glamorous, vibrant and gem-encrusted decorations, as well as huge sculptures and lavish furniture throughout her home.

However, it’s unclear who will be receiving the various assets of her estate, estimated in 2021 to be a £35million fortune.

Gina’s former toyboy husband and Catalan businessman, Javier Rigau will be helping with the distribution of the estate despite the pair being locked in legal battles over the past decade.

Rigau told Italian television: ‘I won’t inherit anything, but there should be an investigation into Gina’s assets because her patrimony has disappeared. As far as I am concerned, the investigations have already been carried out in depth.’

The glamorous film star’s fortune is said to be in a state of uncertainty due to an array of possible claimants and her wealth may have even been partly spent already without her knowledge, according to The Times.  Pictured, Gina at Hotel San Pietro in 2019

Her assets include various properties across Italy as well as her paintings and jewels (pictured: the property in Rome where Gina’s 95th birthday party was held)

The film star announced she was engaged to boyfriend Javier Rigau, who was 34 years her junior, in 2006 but called off the nuptials two months later. 

In November 2010, Gina alleged Javier staged a wedding in an attempt to get his hands on her fortune but lost a court battle proving the accusation in 2017.

After further legal proceedings with her son Milko Skofic Jr, Gina was prevented from being able to manage her most valuable assets after he accused Gina’s assistant of defrauding her.

The Supreme Court of Cassation upheld the decision for Gina to be allocated a guardian in October 2021 after a court ruling meant she could only use her money for day-to-day expenses.

Her former husband Javier Rigau (pictured with Gina in 2005) will observe the distribution of the estate

Once known as the Mona Lisa of the 20th century thanks to her beauty, Miss Lollobrigida was a legend of 1950s and 60s cinema, who later moved away from the film world to take up photography and sculpture. 

She even made a foray into politics last year, standing in the Italian general election just after her 95th birthday, though she failed to gain election to parliament.

This followed her unsuccessful bid to stand in the European Parliament in 1999, representing Romano Prodi’s centrist Democratici party.

Known as ‘La Lollo’, at the height of her fame in the 1950s and 1960s Miss Lollobrigida was an international sex symbol and one of the leading stars of Italian post-war cinema – rivalled only by Sophia Loren, with whom she had an ongoing feud.

Once known as the Mona Lisa of the 20th century thanks to her beauty, Miss Lollobrigida (pictured in 2008 in her home in Rome) was a legend of 1950s and 60s cinema, who later moved away from the film world to take up photography and sculpture

She even made a foray into politics last year, standing in the Italian general election just after her 95th birthday, though she failed to gain election to parliament. Pictured in 2008 in her home in Rome

Leading the tributes to Gina, according to Variety, Loren said in a statement she ‘is deeply shaken and saddened’ by the news of Lollobrigida’s death. 

There was still some apparent ill-feeling as recently as 2017, with Miss Lollobrigida telling an Italian newspaper that she ‘was not looking for any rivalry against anyone’, while describing herself as the ‘number one’.

The pair had reportedly shared a war of words, with Miss Loren, now 88, describing herself as the ‘bustier’ of the two, and Miss Lollobrigida retorting that her rival could ‘play a peasant, but never a lady’.

But Miss Lollobrigida dismissed the feud as a PR invention kept alive for decades by Miss Loren’s team. 

Paying tribute to Miss Lollobrigida, Italian culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said: ‘Farewell to a diva of the silver screen, protagonist of more than half a century of Italian cinema history. Her charm will remain eternal.’ 

The stars collection of jewels and furniture will also need to be distributed (pictured at Cannes Film Festival in 1991)

Born to a working-class family in 1927 in a poor mountainous area east of Rome, Miss Lollobrigida studied sculpture, then got her break in film after finishing third in the 1947 Miss Italia beauty contest (the winner that year was actress Lucia Bose).

One of her earliest performances was as Gemma, the unhappy adulteress in the 1953 film The Wayward Wife (La Provinciale) by director Mario Soldati. 

She found fame in Italy with leading roles in two Italian comedies by Luigi Comencini – Bread, Love and Dreams, and Bread, Love and Jealousy. 

A role opposite Humphrey Bogart in John Huston’s 1954 film Beat the Devil sealed her worldwide fame and in 1955 she made what became one of her signature films, The World’s Most Beautiful Woman. 

Bogart reportedly once said of his co-star: ‘She makes Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple.’

Gina Lollobrigida pictured at a party celebrating her 95th birthday last year in Rome

The actress, pictured in 2014, went from furniture maker’s daughter to international film star, with forays into sculpture, photography and politics 

But despite playing opposite American stars such as Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster, Miss Lollobrigida preferred to work closer to home than Hollywood, making films throughout the 1960s with directors such as Mario Bolognini. 

Gina first earned her living as a model for fotoromanzi, photographic novels avidly read in Italy, using the stage name Diana Loris.

Her often turbulent life proved a rich source of material for Italian paparazzi and gossip writers, although she tried to guard her private life, retreating to an isolated villa on Rome’s ancient Appian Way, which was decorated with her own sculptures and paintings as well art she collected on her world travels.

In 1950 she married Yugoslav doctor Milko Skofic, who became her manager, and they had one son, Milko Junior. 

The actress is pictured at the Hotel Carlton after arriving with four Dalmatians during the 25th Cannes International Film Festival in 1972

After a legal battle with her son, Gina lost control over her most valuable assets (pictured in the garden of her mansion on Appian Way)

They separated after nearly 17 years, and Miss Lollobrigida said later she had no intention of remarrying. 

‘Marriages are boring and almost always like funerals, and couples so often restrict each other too much,’ she said. 

When she stopped making films, Miss Lollobrigida pursued new horizons as a photographer and sculptor and was also a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Between 1972 and 1994 she published six books of her photographs, including Italia Mia (My Italy), The Philippines, and the Wonder of Innocence, with children as the subject. 

Sophia Loren (left) paid tribute to her bitter rival, Gina (right) pictured with Yvonne de Carlo in Germany 1954

The star was plucked from poverty when she came third in the 1947 Miss Italy contest and went on to make a name for herself in Hollywood. Pictured, with Marilyn Monroe in 1962

‘Children with their big wide-open eyes question us. Their looks should help us to forsake selfishness that undoubtedly leaves our hearts quite bare,’ she wrote in its introduction.

In 1975 she made a documentary film called Portrait of Fidel Castro, and for years was surrounded by rumours that she had had an affair with the Cuban leader.

In her later years she returned to her first love, sculpting, keeping a summer home in the Tuscan city of Pietrasanta, an artist’s colony where she worked with artists such as Botero.

She had a one-woman show there in 2008, which she dedicated to her friend, the late opera singer Maria Callas.

Exhibitions of her marble and bronze statues were also held in Paris, Moscow and the United States. 

Tempestuous and impulsive by nature, Miss Lollobrigida made headlines again in 2006, when, at age 79, she announced that she would marry a man 34 years her junior, despite her previous vows to never remarry. She later called off the wedding, blaming the media for spoiling it. 

‘All my life I wanted a real love, an authentic love, but I have never had one. No one has ever truly loved me. I am a cumbersome woman,’ she told an interviewer when she was 80. 

In 2013, when she was 85, an auction of her jewellery by Sotheby’s in Geneva fetched $4.9million (£4million) and set a record for a pair of diamond and pearl earrings, which sold for $2.37million (£1.9million). The proceeds went to stem cell research.

‘Jewels are meant to give pleasure and for many years I had enormous pleasure wearing mine,’ she said.  ‘Selling my jewels to help raise awareness of stem cell therapy, which can cure so many illnesses, seems to me a wonderful use to which to put them.’

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