Learn Italian: Due capolavori sono stati acquistati all'asta per il museo. - Two masterpieces were acquired at the auction for the museum.

This is the passive voice in a compound tense (the passato prossimo). To form it, we use the present tense of essere (sono), followed by the past participle of essere (stati), and finally the past participle of the main verb (acquistati). It translates to "were acquired" or "have been acquired".

Why do both stati and acquistati end in -i?

In the passive voice, all past participles must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. The subject is due capolavori, which is masculine plural. Therefore, both the auxiliary participle stato becomes stati, and the main verb participle acquistato becomes acquistati.

How does the compound word capolavori form its plural?

Capolavoro is a compound noun made of capo (head or chief) and lavoro (work). For compound nouns where both words are nouns of the same gender, usually only the second word changes in the plural. So, capolavoro changes its ending to become capolavori.

What does all'asta mean here?