The Italian state has bought a painting by 16-17th Century baroque master Caravaggio for €30m (£25.9m), one of the largest sums it has ever paid for an artwork.
The country's culture minister said the work, a portrait of cleric Monsignor Maffeo Barberini - later Pope Urban VIII - was one of "exceptional importance" and its purchase part of a wider plan to prevent major artworks from being bought by private collectors.
The painting had been kept in a private collection in Florence and was first shown in public in Rome in 2024.
Caravaggio, master of a lighting technique to make his subjects seem to come alive, has about 65 surviving known works worldwide, only three of which are portraits.
The painting has been transferred to the permanent collection of the Palazzo Barberini - the historic home of the family of the portrait's subject in Rome - where it was first exhibited.
