Who owns Villa Lante?
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By Ritva Liisa Snellman
There have been disputes, legal proceedings, and swift financing decisions from the very start of the Finnish ownership of Villa Lante.
In 1946 the villa's owner General Demetrio Helbig let out an upstairs room to a Finn, Göran Stenius, who at the time was acting as the chargé d'affaires of the Finnish Embassy to the Vatican.
The embassy office soon followed the lead.
The general, who was without offspring, wanted to sell his villa to the Finnish Institute in Rome, to ensure the villa would continue serving cultural purposes.
The Finns hurried to ratify the deal, for the Irish, the Americans, and the English were also eyeing up the valuable building.
Finland's Prime Minister at the time, Urho Kekkonen, quickly arranged permission for the transaction. The Finnish government agreed on May 4, 1950 to buy Villa Lante and to hand it over to the Finnish Institute in Rome.
The money to close the deal came from Amos Anderson (1878-1961), Finland's biggest taxpayer of the time, who owned several printing houses as well as Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland's largest Swedish-language daily. Anderson, who was a generous patron of arts and culture, had established the Finnish Institute in Rome already in 1938.
To avoid taxes, the deal was completed in the name of the Finnish Embassy in the Vatican, as advised by Roman lawyers. The Finnish Institute in Rome was not mentioned in the deed of purchase.
The general's relatives next filed a lawsuit. They argued that the Villa had been swindled from a senile old man for a song. The Finnish government was ordered to pay the relatives a substantial compensation on top of the already agreed annuity.
In addition to donations, the Institute's bookkeeping also received funds, the origin of which is not entirely clear even to Liisa Suvikumpu, who has researched the history of Villa Lante in depth.
Funds forwarded by Åke Gartz, who was Finland's Ambassador in Bern, may even have originated from a trust established to advance American culture.
The opening ceremony took place on April 29, 1954. Finland's cultural smart set was ecstatic: Finland had its very own science institute and it was situated in the most imposing site of all of Rome.
Finnish columnists joked about Villa Lante, dubbing it Villa Lantti ("lantti" meaning a coin in Finnish). A poor country's last few coppers were spent on Villa Lantti.
Nevertheless, Villa Lante soon established itself as a culture and science institute. Over 3,000 Finns have already resided, researched, and studied there.
But in the wake of the 50th birthday celebrations more worries lurk on the horizon. Who exactly owns Villa Lante? Is it the State, or the foundation governing the Finnish Institute in Rome?
The debate is subdued, but the difference in views is great. The State sees itself as the villa's legal owner, and has already had a real estate broker from Milan estimate a going annual rent for the property: EUR 500,000. The Institute would be allowed to rent Villa Lante for half the market price.
The Institute argues the State was merely a decoy in the real estate deal. It would be an outrage if a property bought with private funds and donated to the Institute all of a sudden became government property that the Institute would have to pay rent for.
And for how long would the Finnish Institute be allowed to lease the place? When visiting Villa Lante, a admiring former minister recently voiced the awkward question: if it was put on the open market, just how much would it be worth?
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 25.4.2004
More on this subject:
 Celebrations at the top of the hill
RITVA LIISA SNELLMAN / Helsingin Sanomat
ritva.liisa.snellman@hs.fi
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