The Medici court artist Giorgio Vasaris masterly 16th-century biographies of Renaissance artists, collected in his Lives of the Artists, have long been required reading for Western art history students. But now his work has been garnering more widespread interest in Italy since a feud surfaced between an aristocratic family and the Italian government over ownership of the consummate Renaissance man’s archive, which was to be auctioned today.

The Italian auctioneer canceled the planned sale the Vasari trove, which includes letters written to him by Michelangelo and five popes, after the archive's owners, the noble Festari family, accused the house of setting the opening bid too low at €2.6 million ($3.9 million) and failing to properly consult the family on the property's appraisal. Equitalia, Italy’s international revenue service, had placed the works up for sale to pay off tax debts it claims the family owes.

The more one probes into the dispute, the more entangled and sordid it becomes. According to reports, the Russian company ROSS Engineering had agreed to purchase the archive for a staggering €150 million ($227 million) last year. According to one report in the Italian press, ROSS CEO Vasily Stepanov said that his company was acting on behalf of an oligarch who wished to remain anonymous. Later, Stepanov announced that the oligarch had died in a car accident on September 9, halting that part of the arrangement, though there were no oligarch deaths reported on that date.

Clouding matters further, an Italian government order has banned the transport of the work outside of Vasari’s hometown of Arezzo, in Tuscany. Arezzo’s mayor, though, had said that the ban could be lifted if the Italian government failed to counter the offer made by the Russian company. Italian authorities have voiced suspicions about the proposed Russian transaction, noting that most experts set the value of the archive at closer to €10 million ($15 million).

Prior to the government seizure of the archive, the works had for years been in the possession of the Festari family, the descendants of a Count Spinelli, who announced ownership of the material in the early 20th century, 300 years after it had been thought lost. Spinelli is said to be a descendant of the original executor of Vasari’s will.

The Italian government, which hopes to keep the trove in Italian hands, has stated that it plans to participate in the auction once disputes are resolved.

Read more at ANSA, the Guardian, and the St. Petersburg Times.