Overview
- The Ministry of Culture finalized the state purchase on 10 March, assigning the work to the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in Rome.
- The portrait, attributed with certainty by Roberto Longhi, is one of only three known Caravaggio portraits within an oeuvre of about 65 paintings.
- Painted around 1598, it depicts the young Maffeo Barberini as a cleric of the Apostolic Camera before he became Pope Urban VIII.
- Officials said negotiations lasted more than a year and the painting will remain on view at Palazzo Barberini, where it has been displayed since November 2024.
- The deal follows a recent €14.9 million state purchase of an Antonello da Messina Ecce Homo from Sotheby’s, signaling a continued drive to bring key works into public collections.