{"id":892807,"date":"2026-03-19T03:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/italy-pays-e30-million-for-rare-portrait-by-caravaggio\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T03:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:18:28","slug":"italy-pays-e30-million-for-rare-portrait-by-caravaggio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/italy-pays-e30-million-for-rare-portrait-by-caravaggio\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy Pays \u20ac30 Million For Rare Portrait By Caravaggio"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<p>\n                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1773230095000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\"><br \/>\n                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template><br \/>\n                    <span data-date>\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n                <\/bsp-timestamp>\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    <bsp-page-actions><\/p>\n<p>    <\/bsp-page-actions><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>ROME (AP) \u2014 Italy has bought a rare portrait by baroque painter Caravaggio for 30 million euros (about $35 million), one of the largest state investments ever for a single artwork, the country\u2019s Culture Ministry said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The portrait, painted around 1598 and attributed to Caravaggio in 1963, depicts Maffeo Barberini, a nobleman who later became Pope Urban VIII.<\/p>\n<p>The painting was acquired from a private collection by the Italian state after over a year of negotiations and will now enter Rome\u2019s Palazzo Barberini permanent collection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a work of exceptional importance,\u201d Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said in a statement, noting the painting was a turning point in Caravaggio\u2019s modern rediscovery and its purchase has helped strengthen the presence of his works in Italian public collections.<\/p>\n<p>The new acquisition follows a recent one of Antonello da Messina\u2019s \u201cEcce Homo,\u201d and is part of Italy\u2019s broader project to strengthen the national cultural heritage, making some art history masterpieces accessible to scholars and the public. <\/p>\n<p>The \u201cPortrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini\u201d depicts the future pope in his 30s, dressed as a cleric of the Apostolic Chamber, at a crucial moment in his rise to power.<\/p>\n<p>The work was made famous by art critic Roberto Longhi in his 1963 article \u201cThe True \u2018Maffeo Barberini\u2019 of Caravaggio,\u201d and has since been widely recognized by critics as a work by Caravaggio, also known as Michelangelo Merisi.<\/p>\n<p>Longhi called the painting \u201cone of the founding moments of modern portraiture,\u201d emphasizing how Caravaggio ushered in a new psychological intensity.<\/p>\n<p>Caravaggio revolutionized painting at the turn of the 17th century by introducing a dramatic use of light that became the cornerstone of the Baroque style. He is currently one of the most studied artists in the world, yet the number of his confirmed works remains extremely limited.<\/p>\n<p>At Palazzo Barberini, the portrait will be displayed alongside Caravaggio\u2019s other works \u2014 one of the world\u2019s most important collections \u2014 in particular along another of Caravaggio\u2019s masterpieces, \u201cJudith Slaying Holofernes,\u201d also purchased by the Italian state in 1971.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> AP <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/italy-caravaggio-portrait-painting-maffeo-barberini-pope-culture-52d739100b450709b88c7e74f761de22\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] \u00a0 ROME (AP) \u2014 Italy has bought a rare portrait by baroque painter Caravaggio for 30 million euros (about $35 million), one of the largest state investments ever for a single artwork, the country\u2019s Culture Ministry said Tuesday. The portrait, painted around 1598 and attributed to Caravaggio in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":892808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379,308],"tags":[16096,5238],"class_list":{"0":"post-892807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"category-million","9":"tag-italy","10":"tag-million"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}