Italy buys Caravaggio portrait after year‑long talks
Italy has purchased a rare portrait by baroque master Caravaggio, the culture ministry said.
It cost 30 million euros ($49 million), one of the largest sums the state has ever paid for a single work of art.
Painted in 1598, the work depicts Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, an influential cleric who later became Pope Urban VIII, one of the greatest patrons of the arts of his time.
The work was in a private Florentine collection and was attributed to Caravaggio in 1963.
It was first exhibited publicly at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome in 2024 and will now enter the museum’s permanent collection.
“After more than a year of negotiations, we are announcing today the purchase of an extraordinary masterpiece by Caravaggio,” Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli said in a statement.
He said the purchase was part of a broader effort to strengthen Italy’s public cultural heritage and prevent major works from being lost in private collections.
The purchase comes a month after the culture ministry bought Antonello da Messina’s Ecce Homo for US$14.9 million ($20.9 million), securing the 15th-century Renaissance master’s rare work just as it will go up for auction in New York.
Caravaggio, whose real name was Michelangelo Merisi, was a master of the chiaroscuro lighting technique that made his subjects appear to come to life.
He died in his late 30s in 1610, after a turbulent life.
The painting of the future Pope Urban VIII is one of the few surviving Caravaggio portraits; others have been lost or destroyed.
Only about 60 paintings worldwide are attributed to Caravaggio, and many depict religious narratives.
Barberini’s portrait shows the bearded cleric seated and apparently giving instructions with a subtle movement of his right hand.
The culture ministry said it would plan to purchase more works of art in the coming months “with the aim of making available to scholars and enthusiasts art historical masterpieces that would otherwise be available on the private market.”
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