Leonardo da Vinci

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

Alleged Smuggler Claimed Painting Was $1.4M da Vinci

He was arrested after experts determined it was a forgery from the early 20th century

(Newser) - An artwork that a Spanish man was planning to sell for $1.4 million was an early 20th-century forgery worth around $5,000 at best, not a Leonardo da Vinci painting, police say. The sale of the fake painting was thwarted when customs officers at a French border post spotted...

Geologist Has a Theory on Where Mona Lisa Is Set

Ann Pizzorusso used da Vinci's diaries to pinpoint a location on Lake Como

(Newser) - For Ann Pizzorusso, the most fascinating mystery of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa sits just over her shoulders. A geologist and Italian Renaissance scholar, Pizzorusso spent years puzzling out the painting's setting, and she used his diaries to track down where he traveled during that period. The CBC...

Italy's Quest to Protect Its Art Compared to 'a Land Grab'

Cultural code enforcement targets reproductions of iconic works in the public domain

(Newser) - For years, German toy maker Ravensburger has been decorating puzzles with Leonardo Da Vinci's iconic Vitruvian Man drawing. Under European law, copyright protections extend 70 years after the death of an artist, meaning Vitruvian Man has been in the public domain for centuries since Da Vinci's 1519 death....

After Billionaire Buys da Vinci's Vineyard, It's Off Limits

Site in Milan where painter once lived hasn't offered tours since Bernard Arnault bought it

(Newser) - Typically, CNN Travel stories feature places you can visit. This one laments a historic locale in Italy that is now off limits to the public, with no clear sign of when, or if, that might change. The place in question: the remains of a vineyard once owned by none other...

Secretive Mona Lisa Gives Up a Secret
Secretive Mona Lisa
Gives Up a Secret
Oct 11, 2023 12:00 PM CDT

Secretive Mona Lisa Gives Up a Secret

Da Vinci gave the masterpiece her own distinctive chemical signature

(Newser) - The Mona Lisa has given up another secret. Using X-rays to peer into the chemical structure of a tiny speck of the celebrated work of art, scientists have gained new insight into the techniques that Leonardo da Vinci used to paint his groundbreaking portrait. The research, published Wednesday in the...

Historian Claims to Have Solved a Mona Lisa Mystery

Bridge above subject's shoulder still stands in Tuscany, says Silvano Vinceti

(Newser) - Few eyes gazing upon Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa likely notice the tiny bridge painted just above the subject's left shoulder, on the right side of the painting. But that piece of architecture stood out to Italian historian Silvano Vinceti, who believes he's identified it as a...

Professor Claims da Vinci Was the Son of a Slave
Professor Claims da Vinci
Was the Son of a Slave
NEW BOOK
Mar 16, 2023 1:57 PM CDT

Professor Claims da Vinci Was the Son of a Slave

Carlo Vecce traces mother to North Caucasus based on ties to Leonardo's notary dad

(Newser) - Caterina's Smile, a new novel from historian Carlo Vecce, follows Leonardo da Vinci's mother on a journey from slavery to freedom and beyond. And it's based in fact, according to Vecce, an Italian literature professor at Orientale University, who claims da Vinci's mother was enslaved as...

14 Living Relatives of Da Vinci Discovered
14 Da Vinci Descendants
Are Uncovered
new study
Jul 6, 2021 10:45 AM CDT

14 Da Vinci Descendants Are Uncovered

New study traces his family tree through 21 generations

(Newser) - Leonardo da Vinci didn't have any children of his own, but a comprehensive investigation of his family history has turned up 14 living male relatives, reports ZME Science . The study in the Human Evolution journal has increased the previous estimate of living relatives from two and might shed light...

NYT Has Answers to Persistent 'Salvator Mundi' Questions

Including why it wasn't shown at the Louvre as planned in 2019

(Newser) - The world has had questions about "Salvator Mundi." The New York Times says it has answers. After the painting sold for an eye-popping $450 million in 2017, it remained out of the public eye, reportedly in the hands of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, its...

Stolen Copy of World's Most Expensive Painting Is Found
Stolen Copy of World's Most
Expensive Painting Is Found
in case you missed it
Jan 23, 2021 7:00 AM CST

Stolen Copy of World's Most Expensive Painting Is Found

Italian museum didn't realize 'Salvator Mundi' copy was missing

(Newser) - A 500-year-old copy of the world's most expensive painting has been returned to an Italian museum, whose staff didn't even realize it was stolen. During a search of an apartment in Naples, police came upon the copy of Salvator Mundi , a Leonardo da Vinci original depicting Jesus Christ...

This Person Really Wanted to See the Mona Lisa

Bidder paid $98K to get closer glimpse of da Vinci's famous piece during annual inspection

(Newser) - How much would it be worth to get to see that Mona Lisa smile up close and personal, without any fellow gawkers blocking your view? According to one person, $98,000 . That's how much a bidder paid for the chance to watch as da Vinci's famous painting is...

Check Out 2020's Most Mispronounced Words

'Fauci' and 'Kamala' are among the toppers

(Newser) - Fauci, Kamala ... da Vinci? America's preeminent infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, and its incoming vice president, Kamala Harris, join the Renaissance master himself, Leonardo da Vinci, atop this year's list of most mispronounced words, as compiled by the US Captioning Company, which captions and subtitles real-time events on...

Other Creations of Famous Inventors

Mental Floss is out with a list featuring Edison, Tesla, others

(Newser) - You know all about Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. But did you know Bell also made a metal detector in an unsuccessful attempt to find the bullet in President James Garfield after he was shot in 1881? The device (which came along after one developed earlier in France) is one...

Da Vinci's Groundbreaking Bridge Would Have Worked
Researchers
Test Bridge
Idea From
da Vinci
new study
Oct 11, 2019 8:17 AM CDT

Researchers Test Bridge Idea From da Vinci

His groundbreaking design in 1502 would have worked, say MIT researchers

(Newser) - When the Ottoman ruler put out a request for bridge designs back in 1502, one of those who responded was none other than Leonardo da Vinci. As it turns out, da Vinci didn't get the job, but his visionary design sketch survived. Now, MIT researchers have used that sketch...

Report: World's Most Expensive Painting Is on Prince's Yacht

Sources say Saudi prince had da Vinci 'whisked away'

(Newser) - A $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting could end up in Davy Jones' locker if Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's superyacht sinks, according to Artnet , which says it has tracked down "the world’s most expensive, missing-in-action painting." Sources tell Artnet that the painting was "...

Behind Da Vinci's Genius: ADHD?
Researcher Poses Theory
About Da Vinci's Genius
in case you missed it
Jun 1, 2019 1:30 PM CDT

Researcher Poses Theory About Da Vinci's Genius

Study suggests it was fueled by ADHD

(Newser) - As an artist, mathematician, and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci was without doubt a master. But "his contemporaries could never understand or forgive his lack of discipline," write researchers in the journal Brain . Indeed, as da Vinci jumped from task to task, he left plenty of works unfinished—even...

Virgin Mary Work Is Only Surviving Leonardo Sculpture
'New' Da Vinci Work Is Unveiled
Mar 10, 2019 3:38 PM CDT

'New' Da Vinci Work Is Unveiled

It's called 'The Virgin with the Laughing Child'

(Newser) - A smile, a laugh, a few folds, and presto—you have the only existing sculpture by Leonardo da Vinci. That's pretty much the takeaway after The Virgin with the Laughing Child was presented this week at an exhibition in Florence, NPR reports. An Italian academic and a Leonardo scholar...

Analysis Reveals Da Vinci's Own Edits on Drawing

Artist in youth wasn't quite the master he'd become

(Newser) - The first scientific study of Leonardo's earliest known drawing shows he added details to an earlier sketch, reports the AP . Director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt, says an initial microscopic examination of the 1473 "Landscape Drawing for Santa Maria della Neve" at a Florence restoration lab shows...

Study: Mona Lisa's Gaze Doesn't Live Up to Legend

The 'Mona Lisa Effect' is a 'misnomer,' researchers find

(Newser) - It's a "scientific legend": that Mona Lisa's eyes follow you wherever you go, a phenomenon so well known that it birthed the term "Mona Lisa Effect." Except it's not true, at least in the case of Leonardo da Vinci's painting. That's the...

Leonardo in Paris? Now Italy Is Mad

The Louvre wants to celebrate the Italian master

(Newser) - So versatile were Leonardo da Vinci's talents in art and science and so boundless his visionary imagination, he is known to the world as the universal genius, the AP reports. But not to Italy's nationalist-tilting government, which is livid about plans by the Louvre museum in Paris for...

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>