T-Ray may be able to uncover hidden masterpieces

All those stories about Da Vinci paintings, murals, frescos or whatever you want to call them, being hidden beneath other paintings ? Well, now they think they can prove it.

American scientists, together with the ever so arty crew from the Lourve in Paris, have developed a way to see through the paintings on top and scan for more masterpieces behind, The Reg reports.

Professor Gèrard Mourou of the Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquèe, one of the team behind the T-ray plaster probe said that there are over 100,000 churches in France and many of them reportedly have masterpieces hidden behind plaster. The T-Ray scanner is a quick and easy way to find out if these claims hold any truth without wrecking the paintings on top.

One of the more famous of these claims is that "The Battle of Anghiari” by Leonardo Da Vinci lies behind a plaster wall in Palazzo Vecchio.

The painting is supposedly incredibly beautiful and has been referred to as the "school of the world."

Art diagnostician, Maurizio Seracini, has dedicated nearly half of his life to uncovering the masterpiece using x-rays and ultra violet devices, infrared and thermography.

Read the full story on The Reg.