{"id":323037,"date":"2026-03-10T20:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/323037\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T20:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:56:09","slug":"italy-buys-rare-caravaggio-portrait-of-nobleman-who-became-a-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/323037\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy buys rare Caravaggio portrait of nobleman who became a pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis acquisition, together with the recent purchase of the Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina, is part of a broader project to strengthen the national cultural heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The previous owners of the work, who were not specified, had allowed the portrait to be exhibited to the public for an exhibit on Caravaggio at Palazzo Barberini – the noble family\u2019s historic home in central Rome – which ended in February 2025.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s director, Thomas Clement Salomon, told AFP at the exhibition\u2019s opening in November 2024 that the fact it was being displayed was \u201cexceptional\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has never been lent to an exhibition, it has never been seen in a museum, so it is an absolute preview,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the painting, a seated Barberini is clutching a letter in his left hand, with his right pointing forward, towards the viewer.<\/p>\n

Around 65 paintings in the world have been \u201csecurely attributed\u201d to Caravaggio, according to the ministry statement, while portraits are very rare, with only three \u201cknown and firmly accepted\u201d.<\/p>\n

-Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis acquisition, together with the recent purchase of the Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina, is part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[174479,442,498,499,500,174480,6743,3391,40492,21642,2396,501,44185,156,3273,1224,1132,28874,3586,111,139,174478,69,1118,10142,3074,95426,20842,8205,18640,3048,1361,1865,8733,34539,1299,1533,4576],"class_list":["post-323037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-587m","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-barberini","tag-became","tag-buys","tag-caravaggio","tag-collection","tag-culture","tag-design","tag-enter","tag-entertainment","tag-future","tag-italy","tag-million","tag-ministry","tag-museum","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nobleman","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-paid","tag-painting","tag-pope","tag-portrait","tag-rare","tag-rome","tag-said","tag-that","tag-today","tag-urban","tag-viii","tag-who","tag-will","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}