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Italy buys rare Caravaggio portrait for €30m
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.