Parliament displays Michelangelo carving

ROME, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Italy's culture ministry says a wooden carving of a crucified Jesus Christ attributed to Michelangelo is to be displayed in Parliament in Rome.

The ANSA news agency quoted the ministry as saying the work, which was attributed to a young Michelangelo four years ago and bought by the state from an art dealer for $4.4 million, would be placed in one of Florence's main museums after it is shown at Italian Parliament from Dec. 23 through Jan. 23.

"This was not an impulse buy," Cultural Heritage Director-General Roberto Cecchi told ANSA.

"It is a figure of grand and noble conception, at once vigorous and delicate, and finely detailed," a statement from the ministry said. "It imposes itself with all the majesty and intensity of any of Michelangelo's more monumental works''.