An inheritance battle has broken out within an aristocratic Italian family who own assets worth nearly two billion euros, including the world’s largest private collection of ancient marble statuary.

The vast wealth of the Torlonia family includes palaces in Rome, farmland, banking assets and a collection of 620 marble busts and statues depicting Greek and Roman gods, goddesses and mythical heroes.

When the head of the family, Prince Alessandro Torlonia, died last year the title fell to his eldest son, Carlo Torlonia.

He is now reportedly in a “war of succession”, as one Italian newspaper described it, with his three siblings over the future of the estate, amid concerns that some family members want to sell some of the statues, busts and other artworks.

A court in Rome this week applied a ban on any of the assets being sold or leaving Italy, saying there was a risk the collection could be “dispersed”.

“The precautionary protection was deemed necessary due to the conduct of some of the heirs and of the executor who, in our belief, could have jeopardised the hereditary rights of my client,” the prince’s lawyer, Adriana Boscagli, told La Stampa newspaper. “This measure will obstruct any attempts to sell off the assets.”