** The auction of Gina Lollobrigida's works is being blocked by the police due to competition between heirs.

A court inRome was due to decide on June 6 whether a trustee of the late Italian film actress Gina Lollobrigida tried to auction some 350 of her belongings, including paintings, sculptures and jewelry, despite her will. However, the case has been postponed until December 15 due to a lawyers' strike. It is part of a long-running legal dispute between the claimants to the actress's inheritance, the size of which has been reduced by about 9 million euros, as revealed in a recent study.

Lollobrigida, who died in January at the age of 95, rose to fame with the films Bread, Love and Dreams (1953) and Trapeze (1956). She became one of Europe's first sex symbols and in later years ran unsuccessfully for the European Parliament. She was also a noted art lover, studying sculpture in Florence and exhibiting her work in solo shows. She was awarded the French Medal of Honor for her artistic merits and was photographed alongside Giorgio de Chirico and Salvador Dalí.

The actress' collection included everything from Baroque paintings to busts of Buddhist deities. Many of her belongings, which are listed in an inventory compiled in a recent audit of her legacy and made available to The Art Newspaper, were listed in May 2020 at Roman auction house Colasanti with an estimated value of around €300,000. Among them were paintings attributed to Abraham Bruegel (estimated value €10,000), a Flemish painter active in Italy (€3,000) and a painter of the Neapolitan school (€8,000).

Milko Skofic Jr, Lollobrigida's son, discovered the upcoming auction on Colasanti's website a few days before the auction and reported it to Italian police, who then blocked the auction, says Lollobrigida's lawyer Alessandro Gentiloni Silveri.

Andrea Piazzolla, Lollobrigida's former employee and assistant to whom she left 50% of her legacy, is accused of trying to sell the actress' belongings against her will.

Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Piazzolla's lawyer Filippo Morlaccini claims that the actress initially sought permission from her legal guardian to sell the works, but later denied knowledge of the auction when questioned by aRome prosecutor. Morlaccini claims that Lollobrigida changed her position because she didn't want to reveal to the prosecutor that she was going to auction her works. "She wanted to leave her son nothing, that's the truth," the lawyer adds.

Works from the blocked auction, including some 70 sculptures by Lollobrigida herself, are currently under the protection of the auction house, while other works are stored at her former residences inRome and Pietrasanta, said Roberto Buldrini, an art expert who helped evaluate Lollobrigida's legacy in a recent survey. He added that all the works are stored in "good conditions."

In a separate case, which was due to be heard on June 7 and was postponed until September 18 because of the strike, aRome court will decide whether Piazzolla defrauded Lollobrigida by getting her to leave him half of her legacy. Notary Vittorio Occorsio, who conducted a recent study, estimated the actress' remaining legacy at about 500,000 euros, including debts, which shows that about 9 million euros in cash, including money from the sale of some of her properties, has disappeared. The court's decision could lead to the redistribution of the actress' entire legacy to Milko Skoficu Jr.

The June 6 hearing regarding the blocked auction may have been postponed due to a strike by criminal defense lawyers, says Gentiloni Silveri. Regarding the final fate of the artworks, the lawyer says: "They will be returned to the heirs, whoever they turn out to be."