The Italian state has purchased a rare portrait by Italian Baroque genius Caravaggio for €30 million, Italy's culture minister Alessandro Giuli announced on Tuesday. The work portrays Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII who ruled the Catholic Church and the Papal States from 1623 until his death in 1644.
The painting, which dates to the turn of the 17th century, went on public display for the first time in November 2024 as part of an exhibition at Rome's Palazzo Barberini. The deed of purchase for the Caravaggio portrait was signed on Tuesday at Italy's culture ministry in the presence of Minister Giuli alongside the director general of Italy's state museums, Massimo Osanna, and the director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome, Thomas Clement Salomon.
