Princess Virginia von Fürstenberg (''Virginia Carolina Theresa Pancrazia Galdina Prinzessin zu Fürstenberg''; 17 April 1940 – 18 February 2024), known as Ira von Fürstenberg, was an Italian socialite, actress, jewelry designer, and public relations manager for the fashion designer

Valentino Garavani Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani (; born 11 May 1932), known mononymously as Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer, the founder of the Valentino (fashion house), Valentino brand and company. His main lines include Valentino, Valentino G ...

. She was a member by birth of the princely family of Fürstenberg and a member by marriage of the princely family of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Family and early life

The daughter of Prince Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg from the house of Fürstenberg and his first wife, Clara Agnelli of the FIAT

Agnelli family The Agnelli family () is an Italian multi-industry business dynasty family founded by Giovanni Agnelli, one of the original founders of the Fiat motor company which became Italy's largest automobile manufacturer. They are also primarily known fo ...

, she was born in Rome,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, on 17 April 1940. The elder of her two brothers, Prince Egon von Fürstenberg, became a fashion designer. She also had a younger brother, Prince Sebastian. Her former sister-in-law is the fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg, and an uncle was

Gianni Agnelli Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli (; 12 March 192124 January 2003), nicknamed ("The Lawyer"), was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat S.p.A., Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial ...

, the chairman of

FIAT Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

. During the Second World War, she lived in Switzerland, later in Italy and Austria. When her parents separated she was educated in a boarding school in England for a while. She spoke several languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. She became the patron of a number of charities, including the Children of Africa Foundation set up by Dominique Ouattara.

Career

Ira von Fürstenberg started a modeling career at age 13, walking down the runway for

Emilio Pucci Emilio Pucci, Marchese di Barsento (; 20 November 1914 – 29 November 1992) was an Italian Marquess, aristocrat, fashion designer and politician. He and his eponymous company Pucci designed geometric prints in many colors. Early life Pucci wa ...

, and later collaborating with

Diana Vreeland Diana Vreeland (September 29, 1903 – August 22, 1989) was an American fashion columnist and editor. She worked for the fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' and as editor-in-chief at '' Vogue'', later becoming a special consultant to the Costume ...

. She posed for

Helmut Newton Helmut Newton (né Neustädter; 31 October 192023 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. The ''The New York Times, New York Times'' described him as a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically ch ...

and

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as costume designer and set designer for stage and screen. His accolades ...

. She was well known by the tabloid press. Film producer

Dino De Laurentiis Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian film producer and businessman who held both Italian and American citizenship. Following a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he moved into f ...

thought of a career in film for her and offered her a role in his ''

Matchless Matchless is one of the oldest marques of British motorcycles, manufactured in Plumstead, London, between 1899 and 1966. A wide range of models were produced under the Matchless name, ranging from small two-strokes to 750 cc Four-stroke cy ...

'', a 1968 parody of

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

, co-starring Patrick O'Neal. It became the first of 28 films, some of them European coproductions of genre films. She never trained as an actor. In 1968

Roger Vadim Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (; 26 January 1928 – 11 February 2000) was a French screenwriter, film director, and producer, as well as an author, artist, and occasional actor. His best-known works are visually lavish films with erotic qualities, s ...

offered her '' Barbarella'', but she declined, and

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon, Jane Fonda filmography, Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of List of a ...

landed a success. Her appearances included ''

I Killed Rasputin ''I Killed Rasputin'' () is a 1967 Cinema of Italy, Italo-Cinema of France, Franco biographical film directed by Robert Hossein. Gert Fröbe stars as the main subject, Grigori Rasputin. It is based on the work ''Lost Splendor'' by Felix Yusupov, a ...

'' (1967), '' Dead Run'' (1967, co-starring

Peter Lawford Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford (né Aylen; 7 September 1923 – 24 December 1984) was an English-American actor.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 26 December 1984. He was a member of the "Rat Pack" and the brother-in-law of US president Jo ...

), ' (1968), '' The Vatican Affair'' (1968), '' The Battle of El Alamein'' (1969), '' Five Dolls for an August Moon'' (1970), '' No desearás al vecino del quinto'' (1970), '' Hello-Goodbye'' (1970) alongside Curd Jürgens, and '' The Fifth Cord'' (1971). She co-hosted the 20th edition of the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

with Nuccio Costa and Enrico Maria Salerno in 1970. She returned to fashion, with a post of president of the Italian branch of the cosmetics company Germaine Montell, and from 1978 general director of Valentino. In 1992, she founded a fashion house, the "Ira von Fürstenberg Collection", and designed jewelry titled ''Objets Uniques''. She presented a television show in German, ''"Palastgeflüster'', on SAT.1 from 1992.

Personal life

Her first husband was

Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Alfonso Maximiliano Victorio Eugenio Alejandro María Pablo de la Santísima Trinidad y Todos los Santos, Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (28 May 1924 – 21 December 2003) was a Spanish businessman known for his promotion of the Spanish resorts of ...

(1924–2003), who founded the Marbella Club, a Spanish resort. They married in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

on 17 September 1955, when she was aged 15 and the groom, 31. The wedding was a lavish feast, attended by international society. The couple had two children: * Christoph Victorio Egon Humberto (known as "Kiko"; 8 November 1956 – 6 August 2006), who died of massive organ failure a few days after being imprisoned in Klongprem Central Prison in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

on charges of suspicion of illegally altering a visa. His health had been weakened from a weight-loss regimen at a Thai wellness center. * Hubertus Rudolph (known as "Hubi"; born 2 February 1959), a musician and photographer who was on Mexico's Olympic skiing team in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 2010, and 2014. Married to Simona Gandolfi on 17 June 2019 in

Vaduz Vaduz (; or ; High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' ...

. They lived in Mexico City, because her husband had family ties there, and introduced the VW Beetle into Latin America. She left with the children in 1960. They were divorced in 1960, and the marriage was annulled in 1969. Her second husband was Francisco "Baby" Pignatari (1916–1977), a Brazilian industrialist. They married in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

, on 12 January 1961. They divorced in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

in January 1964. Von Fürstenberg died on 18 February 2024, at the age of 83, from injuries sustained in a "domestic accident" at her residence in Rome. The funeral service took place on 23 February 2024 in the Church of Santa Maria in Rome. In addition to the family,

John Elkann John Philip Jacob Elkann (born 1 April 1976) is an American-born Italian industrialist. In 1997, he became the chosen heir of his maternal grandfather Gianni Agnelli, following the death of Gianni's nephew Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, and since 2 ...

and his wife Lavinia, Tomás Terry and Marisela Federici were also present. Her grave is located in the cemetery in Strobl am Wolfgangsee.

Published works

* * *

References

External links