After a very Italian style wait, a long planned project to find ‘the greatest work by Leonardo da Vinci’ is about to get under way, a detective’s investigation into ‘the greatest work of the Renaissance, the Battle of Anghiari.
Quoted from this article:
In May 2007 Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage Francesco Rutelli approved a resumption of efforts to locate a long-lost masterpiece mural by Leonardo da Vinci. The Battle of Anghiari disappeared nearly 500 years ago when the Hall of the 500 in the Palazzo Vecchio was remodeled by Giorgio Vasari, starting in 1563. But was “Anghiari” destroyed? Did Vasari protect it behind his own new mural? And if the da Vinci masterpiece remained in place, did it crumble – or has it survived to this day?
Those questions have echoed through the centuries, but with no way to resolve the enigma until modern technology became available to see “beyond the visible.” The Italian government appointed CISA3 director Maurizio Seracini to lead the scientific search for Anghiari. Historians have long suspected that Vasari’s great respect for da Vinci’s work prompted him to paint his fresco on a brick wall built in front of the original masterpiece, in order to preserve Leonardo’s masterpiece.
Finally, on the 22nd of September 2010, the hunt is on. The National Geographic Society handed over a cheque to the Mayor of Florence, the first installment of a promised $250,000, and the work is now due to begin, as reported in the Italian Press.
The following video comes from a CBS documentary on the Battle of Anghiari and the ‘Art Detective’:
The following video has an Italian commentary, but, well, you’ll get the drift.