Italy's Culture Ministry put a recently purchased devotional painting by early Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina on display in the Senate on Thursday — and the culture minister says such acquisitions would be stepped up.
The $14.9 million purchase from Sotheby's auction house in New York of the painting titled “Ecce Homo,” comes just weeks after the ministry paid a private collector 30 million euros (about $35 million) for a portrait by Caravaggio that was part of a blockbuster show in the capital last year.
