ISTANBUL, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- A rare portrait of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II was brought to its new home in Turkey's largest city Istanbul on Friday after being acquired at a live auction in London two months ago.

"Perhaps, we are witnessing a renaissance era art piece joining in a public collection for the first time," Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul, told reporters at a ceremony at the municipality headquarter in the Sarachane neighborhood.

"This 540-year-old art piece of the Italian painter Gentile Bellini is placed at a special section where highest level measures, from security to air conditioning, have been taken," Imamoglu noted.

The oil painting portrait was purchased by the municipality officials who joined the sale at the famous British auction house Christie's over the phone in June.

Following a fierce competition, the municipality paid the highest price and purchased the portrait for 770,000 British pounds, or 955,000 U.S. dollars, a press release had said.

"After the end of the Ottoman's war with the Republic of Venice in 1479, Sultan Mehmed II prepared a peace treaty at which he invited Bellini to Istanbul to carry out his works," Imamoglu explained the story of the painting.

"And, Bellini created this portrait of the sultan during his time he spent in the city," the mayor said, noting that it is one of the three original portraits of the sultan that survived to the present day.

In his piece, the painter depicted the sultan facing another man, whose identity is unknown. It is widely believed by historians that this was one of the last poses of the emperor before being poisoned to death in 1481.

The sultan conquered the Byzantine city of Constantinople, today's Istanbul, in 1453, when he was 21 years old, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire. Since then, he has been known as Mehmed the Conqueror, one of the most revered figures among Turkish people.

Imamoglu revealed that the portrait would be open to the public in October, and until then, it would be left to rest at this specially designed section. Enditem

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