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Da Vinci to Be Decoded With Neutron Beam

Expert from bestseller may find masterpiece in Florentine wall

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 24, 2007 4:45 PM CDT

(Newser) – An art diagnostician so inventive that he was mentioned in The Da Vinci Code—the only real-life character in the book—will beam neutrons at a wall of Florence’s famous town hall next month, hoping to uncover a hidden Leonardo fresco. Maurizio Seracini has been waiting three decades to discover whether the wall does, indeed, contain the Battle of Anghiari, a missing masterpiece considered so brilliant it was the “school of the world,” Wired reports.

Seracini’s $1.5-million scan will collect data on the chemical composition of paints—if they exist—behind the Palazzo Vecchio’s walls. The team would then generate a “ghost image” and use it to create a mock artwork; Italian authorities would presumably decide whether to extract the painting. Said Seracini of Florentine secrets, “There could be so many major masterpieces just sitting there.”

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

Peter Paul Ruben's copy of the lost Battle of Anghiari, c. 1603, may give some indication of the composition of a lost Da Vinci's fresco, referred to in notes but never recovered. (drawingsofleonardo.org)

Engineer and inventor Pascal Cotte, left, examines a mural of an infrared image of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" along with Jack Eitzen in the "Da Vinci: Exhibition of Genius" exhibit at the Metreon... (Associated Press)

The discovery of a lesser hand's touch-ups of Da Vinci's Adoration of the Magi, earned Seracini a mention as the only real-life character in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. (Public Domain)

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Maurizio Seracini multi-spectral analysis of Aodration of the Magi by Leonardo da Vinci. (paulica111 (YouTube))

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Da Vinci to Be Decoded With Neutron Beam