Art sleuths believe long-lost Da Vinci found

Art sleuths believe they have found traces of a Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece on a hidden wall in a palace in Florence that has not been seen in over four centuries.

The traces were collected using tiny probes introduced into a wall covering the original surface in a lavish hall in the Palazzo Vecchio and contained a black pigment also used in the Mona Lisa, historians and officials said.

The research is the result of a decades-long quest by San Diego University art history professor Maurizio Seracini, who was featured in Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code, and used cutting-edge technology in the project.