Cerca Trova - Searching for the World's Greatest Painting

Dr. Maurizio Seracini could be on the verge of uncovering a da Vinci painting many consider to be the greatest painting ever done. Yes, even greater than the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper - The Battle of Anghiari.

Seracini started his search thirty years ago, when he picked up on a clue to the painting in another painting. A fresco done by Giorgio Vasari of a battle showed a green flag in the distance bearing the phrase 'cerca trova' or 'seek and you shall find'. This painting hung in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, where many of da Vinci's paintings used to hang.

Thrilled, Seracini interpreted the phrase to mean one thing - that da Vinci's painting lay behind the walls of Vasari's. But how could he get to the painting without damaging the wall of the building or the other work of art? For thirty years he was worked toward this goal.

A number of art historians have tried before to locate the painting before. The Battle of Anghiari was painted about four and a half centuries ago, but it was believed that da Vinci had messed it up, and, as a result, it was destroyed by a Medici duke.

However, little clues started to emerge, pointing toward the possibility that the painting still exists, including the one found by Seracini.

Seracini is now a professor at the University of California, and working with forensic art analysis techniques to seek and hopefully find the lost painting. Next year, he is planning to use a portable neutron-beam scanner to see through the walls of the Palazzo Vecchio. And hopefully, onto a work that will forever change the world of art.