Aug. 17, 2008
The Lost Leonardo Da Vinci
An Art Detective's Quest To Find A Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Masterpiece
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Play CBS Video Video The Lost Leonardo The Leonardo DaVinci masterpiece, The Battle of Anghiari, is thought to be lost forever, but an art detective thinks he has solved the mystery of the missing mural. Morley Safer reports.
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This is what "The Battle of Anghiari" by Leonardo da Vinci is believed to look like. (CBS)
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Maurizio Seracini (CBS)
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"The bigger the difference is between the body emitting heat and the room the better you will see the image," Seracini says.
He goes about his business, literally, an inch at a time. "Because this is the lifetime chance, which I have been waiting for more than half my life," he says.
Back in San Diego, Seracini's measurements from Florence are "stitched" together. The flood of data represents every substance that might be hiding Leonardo's painting. By eliminating them, Seracini should be left with a dim representation of what lies beneath in the Palazzo Vecchio.
"After 32 years, finally we will come to the final conclusion of the mystery, because you will be able to prove that Leonardo is there," Seracini says.
"Or not," Safer remarks.
"Or not," Seracini acknowledges. "But it will be a definite answer."
He is about to enter the home stretch. A precious cargo of bricks stored away during renovations of the palazzo arrived in San Diego. They'll be painted with the same pigments we know that Leonardo favored, and then used to calibrate newer, more powerful instruments. And with luck, by year's end, Maurizio Seracini will know the outcome of his 30 year quest.
Asked if he ever contemplates the possibility of failure, Seracini tells Safer, "I accept it only if failure means that for some reason it was destroyed. But that it is not there, has never been there, no. I don’t contemplate."
"In the end, if the imaging techniques provide us with a glimpse, at least?" Safer asks Carmen Bambach.
"It'd be the glimpse of genius, and I think everyone will probably weep," she replies.
Produced by David Browning
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 21 CommentsPosted 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
This is an incredible find!!
This is an incredible find!!
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6300
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.
Posted by shafteriffic
Here''s a great example of why Europeans in general think Americans are rude, crude and clueless.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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