Italy buys rare Caravaggio portrait for €30m The purchase is part of wider plans to prevent major artworks from being bought by private collectors.

The Italian state has bought Caravaggio's Portrait of Maffeo Barberini (c. 1598) for €30m. The painting, which depicts the future Pope Urban VIII (1623-44), will now enter the collection in Palazzo Barberini in Rome > www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #caravaggio #barberini #urbanviii

🏛 #OTD in #Art #History 22 February 1633, #StPeters's #Baldachin, the cathedral's stunning sculptural centrepiece fashioned by Gian Lorenzo #Bernini, was inaugurated by Pope #UrbanVIII in Rome.

Gian Lorenzo #Bernini (1598-1680)
Bust of Pope #UrbanVIII (1568-1644), who was #BornOnThisDay
ca. 1632-3
#PalazzoBarberini
#MaffeoVincenzoBarberini #Barberini