Search Is on for Lost Da Vinci Masterpiece

Nuclear physics might soon solve a long-standing Leonardo da Vinci mystery -- the fate of a lost masterpiece known as the "Battle of Anghiari."

The project, one of the most ambitious in art history, involves developing a unique camera which can take photographs through a 5-inch-thick wall.

The brick barrier is not just an ordinary wall. It stands in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence's 14th century city hall, in the imposing Hall of Five Hundred, and houses a mural known as the "Battle of Marciano". It was painted by the renowned 15th-century painter, architect and writer Giorgio Vasari.

Leonardo's lost work could lie right behind that wall, according to art diagnostic expert Maurizio Seracini, director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego....