Art

The furniture and decorations of the Capri villa of late American society beauty Countess Mona Bismarck were auctioned off for $3 million Tuesday, according to Sotheby’s of Florence. The total, netted after two days of auctioning at the British firm’s Florence branch, was a record for Sotheby’s in Italy, spokesman Lucian Comoy said. Florence officials had for a time threatened to prohibit the sale on the grounds that the contents of the Villa Bismarck were part of Italy’s cultural heritage, but the auction went off without incident. The countess was born Mona Strader in Louisville, Ky. She married five times in all and died in Paris at 84 in 1983.