Italy buys rare Caravaggio portrait

Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli, photo editor: Dastan Shanay

Italy has purchased a rare painting attributed to the Baroque master Caravaggio for $35 million, marking one of the country’s largest state expenditures on a single artwork, the Associated Press reported.

The portrait, titled «Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini,» was painted around 1598 and depicts Pope Urban VIII as a young cleric. The Italian Culture Ministry said the work was acquired from a private collection after more than a year of negotiations and will be added to Palazzo Barberini‘s permanent collection.

According to Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, the painting has major historical importance and the purchase reflects Italy’s efforts to preserve and strengthen its national cultural heritage by keeping significant artworks in public collections.

The acquisition follows another recent state purchase, «Ecce Homo» by Antonello da Messina, part of a broader initiative to ensure that important works of art remain accessible to scholars and the public.

Caravaggio, whose dramatic use of light transformed painting at the beginning of the 17th century, is considered a central figure of the Baroque period. Although he remains one of the most studied painters in art history, only a limited number of his works are confirmed.