Italy to seek 'lost Leonardo'

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FLORENCE, Italy, Jan 11 (Reuters) One of the art world's great mysteries may be about to be solved: Did Leonardo Da Vinci paint a masterpiece that was lost in time, and does it still survive today? Italy's culture minister gave his go-ahead yesterday to explore behind a wall in Florence's renaissance town hall to see if it is hiding the 500-year-old ''Battle of Anghiari'', sometimes known as the ''lost Leonardo''.

Florence's leaders commissioned Leonardo -- the painter of the Mona Lisa and the most famous version of the Last Supper -- in 1503 to create a fresco celebrating a military victory.

While his preliminary sketches of fighters on horseback survive, there is no trace of the fresco itself. Some art historians believe it may never have been completed, others say it was destroyed.

But one theory suggests it was covered up by subsequent art work at the Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall, which is next to the Uffizi gallery which contains some of Renaissance Italy's most treasured works of art.

''We've decided to give the go-ahead to explore the Salone del Cinquecento to look for the Battle of Anghiari,'' Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli told reporters after a meeting with Florence's mayor.

''We've taken this decision to find out, once and for all, if there is a wall cavity and if there are traces of the original fresco.'' Mayor Leonardo Domenici said the exploration would be ''brief'' but gave no specific timeline.

An alliance of the Florentine Republic, the Venetian Republic and the Papal States defeated the Milanese army at the Battle of Anghiari on June 29, 1440, an important victory for Florence which became a major political and military power.