Italian Culture Ministry

A villa in Rome containing the only known ceiling painted by Caravaggio went on a court-ordered auction block on Jan. 18, thanks to an inheritance dispute pitting the heirs of one of Rome's aristocratic families against their stepmother, a Texas-born princess.

Italian archaeologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals in a cave near Rome, shedding new light on how the Italian peninsula was populated and under what environmental conditions.