Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli announced Tuesday that the government has bought Caravaggio's Portrait of Maffeo Barberini for 30 million euros in one of the Italian State's biggest investments ever in a work of art.
    "After more than a year of negotiations, we are pleased to announce today the purchase by the Ministry of Culture of an extraordinary masterpiece by Caravaggio," Giuli said after signing the deed of purchase.
    The minister said the artwork would become part of the collection of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica at Rome's Palazzo Barberini.
    The painting belonged to a private collection and had not featured in any major Caravaggio exhibitions until it went on show in the Landscape Hall of Palazzo Barberini between November 2024 and February 2025.
    Maffeo Barberini was an important clergyman and art patron who went on to become Pope Urban VIII in 1623.
    The portrait was painted circa 1598, when Barberini was in his early 30s.

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