Italy buys Caravaggio painting for €30m

The oil-on-canvas painting Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini by Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Alessio Panunzi and Alberto Novelli/Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Ministero della Cultura via AP, HO)

Italy has bought a rare portrait by baroque painter Caravaggio for €30m, one of the largest state investments ever for a single artwork, the country’s Culture Ministry said.

The portrait, painted in around 1598 and attributed to Caravaggio in 1963, depicts Maffeo Barberini, a nobleman who later became Pope Urban VIII.