Italy has bought Antonello da Messina's "Ecce Homo" for $14.9 million, securing the rare work by the 15th‑century Renaissance master just as it was due to be auctioned in New York, the culture minister said.

The ministry described the small, tempera painting as a unique work in Renaissance art and a major addition to its strategy to expand and promote Italy's cultural heritage.

The double-sided panel shows on one side a striking "Ecce Homo" image of Jesus Christ crowned with thorns and on the other side a penitent Saint Jerome in a rocky landscape.

Around 40 works by Antonello da Messina have survived to this day, with almost half of them held in Italian collections.

Art experts believe Messina painted four versions of "Ecce Homo". One is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the other two in Italy -- at Palazzo Spinola in Genova and the Collegio Alberoni in Piacenza.

The first documented mention of this fourth work dates back to the early 20th century, when it belonged to a private Spanish collection. It was later bought by a New York gallery.

The Culture Ministry did not say where it planned to display this latest acquisition.

The painting had been expected to be sold at an auction of Old Masters at Sotheby's in New York, with the estimated price put at $10-15 million.

In its notes about the work, Sotheby's wrote that the painting "offers a deeply personal encounter with one of the most psychologically powerful images of Christ in Renaissance art — startlingly human, vulnerable, and present".

-Reporting by Crispian Balmer, Editing by William Maclean/Reuters