The Lost Leonardo Da Vinci

An Art Detective's Quest To Find A Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Masterpiece

(CBS)  Safer joined Seracini on the scaffold facing the Vasari painting. He must work without even touching it. His equipment works best in the cold, and on the night 60 Minutes visited it was near freezing in the huge room. If Seracini is right, the lost Leonardo lies just a few tantalizing inches behind Vasari's battle scene, itself 450 years old.

And close to the ceiling, Seracini has discovered another tantalizing clue impossible to see from the floor below: the words "Cerca Trova" painted on a flag - "Seek and ye shall find." Was it a message from Vasari to the future?

"Is all this a coincidence? Maybe. If it is, it's a very nice coincidence," Seracini says.

Off and on for 30 years, Seracini has prowled this building, trying to sort out what happened to the Leonardo. Five hundred years ago, the palazzo attracted the greatest musicians, painters and sculptors of the age, summoned there by the Medici, the rulers of Florence for much of the Renaissance. They were a family with a ruthless gift for profit and position, and a passion for art.

In the map room, the Medici plotted strategy; they prayed in their private chapel. The palazzo also has its grisly history: the renegade priest Savonarola was jailed in the tower, then publicly burned at the stake in the piazza below.

It was in 1504 that the republican government of Florence commissioned Leonardo to paint the battle of Anghiari.

Leonardo turned up at the palazzo carrying a small painting he'd been working and re-working. He set it aside, and began his preliminary drawings for the battle scene. The "little" painting he carried was none other than the Mona Lisa.

"Do you ever feel there's a ghost of the master looking over your shoulder?" Safer asks Seracini.

"Well, I don't know if I can say that I felt the presence of Leonardo. What I can say is, it has to be there. Right there. We’ll find out," he replies.

Seracini's search is the culmination of a career using 21st century technology to unlock ancient history. His tools are lasers, ultrasound, ultraviolet light, and heat mapping - things even the genius Leonardo never dreamed of.

[nothappyatall]

Why isn''''t there anyone as great as him today?

Posted by jh6379"

Different era, people today love cheap and trashey because in a couple of years they toss it and buy something else. You couldnt even find someone willing to spend 4 years painting a ceiling laying on their back on a scaffold for the equiv of maybe $1 an hour today!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling

[calmmm]

Wow -- I just did some research about API -- Advanced Photonix. They''re THE world leader in terahertz research and have already sold scanners to NASA to non-destructively test the foam on the shuttle. They''re rumored to have test units with HUGE companies like Glaxo, and every day someone is coming up with a new application for non-ionizing T-Rays that can see through material like an XRAY yet cause no damage to the human cell.

This is an incredible find!!

[calmmm]

Wow -- I just did some research about API -- Advanced Photonix. They''re THE world leader in terahertz research and have already sold scanners to NASA to non-destructively test the foam on the shuttle. They''re rumored to have test units with HUGE companies like Glaxo, and every day someone is coming up with a new application for non-ionizing T-Rays that can see through material like an XRAY yet cause no damage to the human cell.

This is an incredible find!!

[randyjk-2009]

I think that the poster bobincolor is / has developed a ahem, reputation in the message board world. Come clean Bob, come clean...

[thgdriver]

Maybe Nobama''s plan for change can finally be found back there. LOL.

[bobincolor]

Randy, you oh so right about the company with sticker "api". Their Thq machine would give results with vivid colors, maybe even find the grail back there.

[randyjk-2009]

too bad the story didn''t mention the real cutting-edge technology in this arena which is terahertz. Picometrix a subsidiary of Advanced Photonix, (the company that sold a scanner to NASA to examine the foam on the space shuttle) is the world leader.
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6300

[ham9875]

Amen. Hurry up with the surgical camera, remove a section from the exterior, etc. What is this Geraldo/Capone vault build-up?

[ham9875]

Surgical camera? Why didn''t Morley Safer or anyone suggest just using a surgical camera to examine the old wall???

[cmp271]

This will be a great find. Then how to uncover it. Michelangelo''s work is to be revered, he was a true artist. What we have today are just artists messing around as kindergartners.

One wonders who he was to be able to "see" the future. He lived in a time when it was not acceptable, yet as an artist he could draw these things. Makes one wonder!

Shame on the uneducated American''s who are boorish in their taste and do not have any type of class. go play with your playdoh and paint by number sets.

[usbrit-2009]

Who cares! Anyone who would say this is worth money is an idiot. Art sucks, especially this *** these old painters did. What a waste of time and a guys whole life.

Posted by shafteriffic

Here''s a great example of why Europeans in general think Americans are rude, crude and clueless.

[toolmangler-2009]

Wait till ''Dan Brown'' gets hold of this one, The Da Vinci code will be reborn

[shafteriffic]

Who cares! Anyone who would say this is worth money is an idiot. Art sucks, especially this *** these old painters did. What a waste of time and a guys whole life.

[nothappyatall]

I wonder ''''why'''' it was covered to begin with. It seems to run contrary to the Medici, to the age and the location to obscure even an unfinished piece.


Posted by sincityq

Assuming its there, any number of reasons, political, severe damage, was barely started and then stopped, or even to hide/protect it against damage during some conflict and then forgotten.

[newsterl]

Lastly, I might suggest this "scanning" and photographing can cause more damage than a 3mm hole in an obscure top corner if any LIGHT is used in the process- remember- light destroys pigments, paints, paper and a lot of stuff, last thing you want a painting, photo, prints etc exposed to is any kind of light, high intensity or otherwise.

[newsterl]

"A lot of these comments reflect the ignorance Americans have about the value of art and historical things in general. He cant drill a hole in a painting that is only 50 years newer than this Da Vinci, its just as valuable a painting as the one under it."

Im hardly ignorant of art, Im an artist and antique collector, no one was suggesting they drill a hole large enough through the center of it to drive a truck through! a 3 mm dia hole on a MURAL SIZED painting they need a scaffold to reach is hardly going to ruin the painting.

"As for the *** with the acrobat nets and moving the statue, I think the author of the story was merely giving you an idea as to how high the scaffolding was.
Posted by spadeisspade"

You insult the guy for his concern? easiest way to deal with this is don''t carry anything like hammers, crowbars or bricks up on the scaffold to begin with.

[spadeisspade]

A lot of these comments reflect the ignorance Americans have about the value of art and historical things in general. He can''t drill a hole in a painting that is only 50 years newer than this Da Vinci, it''s just as valuable a painting as the one under it.

As for the *** with the acrobat nets and moving the statue, I think the author of the story was merely giving you an idea as to how high the scaffolding was.

[ssaoutcast]

As I type this, I have just viewed your story on the lost da Vinci mural. I determined to post a comment on it as soon as I heard about the precarious nature of the work: if anything is dropped, it could destroy a priceless Michelangelo statue below.

Hello? Why not move the statue out of the way temporarily? If that''s not practical, perhaps they could put up a net under the worker like the ones used by circus acrobats, to catch anything that might fall and save the artwork below. If it is, why not do both?

I can''t believe I''m the only one on this planet (or at least in your audience) who thought of these things. Granted, I haven''t read every word of every post in this blog, if that''s what you call it. But I did glance at all the ones on this page, anyway. Mostly I saw suggestions about drilling small holes in the wall, although your story talked about x-ray and/or other devices that can see through paint, which would seem to make such holes unnecessary.

[newsterl]

DaVinci''s horses are just plain *** looking, all that muscle and power!

[newsterl]

A small hole in an inconspictuous location up high would work, 3 mm may be too small, 1/4" would work and they can insert a fiber optic bore-scope and look- no camera needed.
They worry about touching this or that or drilling a tiny hole when there''s far more things to worry about- like the next earthquake that could collapse that building. Nothing lasts forever unfortunately, and at some point a quake, fire, flood or war will almost certainly damage/destroy this building and many others.