He heard that Francesco Bandini, a Florentine settled in exile at Rome, earnestly desired some relic of the master's work.

Accordingly, Calgagni, with Michelangelo's consent, bought the broken marble from Antonio for 200 crowns, pieced it together, and began to mend it.
Fortunately, he does not seem to have elaborated the surface in any important particular; for both the finished and unfinished parts bear indubitable marks of Michelangelo's own handling.

After the death of Calcagni and Bandini, the Pieta remained for some time in the garden of Antonio, Bandini's heir, at Montecavallo.

It was transferred to Florence, and placed among the marbles used in erecting the new Medicean Chapel, until at last, in 1722, the Grand Duke Cosimo III.
finally set it up behind the altar of the Duomo.
Vasari adds that Michelangelo began another Pieta in marble on a much smaller scale.

It is possible that this may have been the unfinished group of two figures (a dead Christ sustained by a bending man), of which there is a cast in the Accademia at Florence.