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Italy buys Caravaggio painting for about $35 million, one of its largest payouts for a single work
The €30 million purchase secures a rare Caravaggio portrait of the future Pope Urban VIII, enhancing Italy's public cultural heritage with only three known Caravaggio portraits worldwide.
- On March 10, Italy's Culture Ministry bought a rare Caravaggio portrait for 30 million euros and transferred it into the Palazzo Barberini's permanent collection in Rome.
- Following last week's purchase of Antonello da Messina’s 'Ecce Homo', Italy's Culture Ministry said it aims to strengthen national cultural heritage and prevent artworks from private markets, Giuli said.
- Painted around 1598, the portrait depicts Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII, clutching a letter with his left hand and making a right-hand gesture, authenticated in 1963 by Roberto Longhi and kept in a private Florence collection before its Palazzo Barberini exhibition in 2024.
- The ministry plans to buy more works in the coming months to make masterpieces available to scholars and enthusiasts, with Alessandro Giuli calling it one of "the most significant investments" and saying 'This is a work of exceptional importance'.
- Caravaggio's small surviving oeuvre includes only around 60 paintings, with just three known surviving Caravaggio portraits, highlighting the rarity of this chiaroscuro technique masterpiece.
58 Articles
58 Articles
Baroque bargain: Italy buys rare Caravaggio painting for €30 million
Italy has spent €30 million on a rare Caravaggio painting of a young man who went onto become Pope Urban VIII in a move to protect and strengthen its national cultural heritage and make art more accessible to scholars.
For decades it has remained almost invisible, known only through photographs and quotations in the essays: a true mystery among the works of which everyone speaks, but which few could admire live. After years in the shade, the portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini of Caravaggio finally enters into the public heritage. The Italian State bought it for 30 million euros: it is one of only three portraits attributed with certainty to Michelangelo Me…
The work was long part of a Florentine private collection, and was first put on public display in Rome in 2024.
The Italian government purchased a painting by Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) for 30 million euros, or approximately 51.13 billion won, the largest investment in art. According to foreign media outlets such as ANSA on the 10th (local time), the Italian government purchased a painting by Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) for 30 million euros, or approximately 51.13 billion won.
Italy buys rare Caravaggio painting for €30 million, calling it ‘a work of exceptional importance’
Italy's Culture Ministry has announced a landmark acquisition, purchasing a rare Caravaggio portrait for €30 million (£25.9 million). This represents one of the state's most significant investments in a single artwork. The painting, dating from around 1598 and attributed to the baroque master in…
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