FLORENCE, Italy, June 21 (UPI) -- An Italian engineer believes a missing Leonardo da Vinci fresco is concealed behind a later work by Giorgio Vasari in Florence.
Maurizio Seracini wants to use an endoscope, normally used to peer into the human body, to look for the Leonardo, the Times of London reports. But to do that, he would have to make a small hole in the Vasari fresco, which has been in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio for more than 500 years.
Leonardo's The Battle of Anghiari, commissioned by the Florentine Republic during a brief gap in Medici rule, was hailed as a masterpiece. But the Medicis returned to power, and Vasari was commissioned to paint one of their victories, The Battle of Marciano.
Seracini believes that the missing Leonardo still exists, that Vasari used it as a model and built a wall to protect it. He says the artist even left a clue -- the message 'Cerca trove' or 'Look and you will find" -- on a flag in his painting.
So far, officials have blocked Seracini's quest, fearing that he would damage the Vasari.
