Today we can find only the perimeter of the villa built by Galeazzo Alessi in 1554 for Ottaviano Grimaldi Cebà († 1563). In the mid-nineteenth century the harmonious original building was disfigured in the front, in the inside volumes and significantly raised to obtain a large number of apartments.
The four Rubensian engravings (perspective on the street, facade and two plans) which document the appearance of the original building, allow us to recognize only the space that was dedicated to the unusual arcade courtyard. The residence overlooked this courtyard. We can recognise also the Alessian architectural decoration of the two stucco friezes that mark the distinction among the ground floor, the first floor and at the top: the first with classical triglyphs and metopes, and the second, previously unknown, with vine shoots.
Giorgio Vasari reports that the client, Ottaviano Grimaldi, had been portrayed by Paris Bordon. However, he or rather the distant cousin Lazzaro who inherited the villa at his death, called Luca Cambiaso for the internal decoration of his suburban residence.
Before the end of the seventeenth century, the building was inherited by Sauli's family, and in the following century, Francesco Milizia, writer of treatise, has already documented its decline; at the time of the final nineteenth-century damage, at least part of the internal frescoes were detached and today they are part of the collections of the Museo di Sant’Agostino.