The Da Vinci Detective

The life work of Dr. Maurizio Seracini, recently profiled in the New York Times, is the subject of this engrossing, two-part documentary. Seracini, an engineering professor at the University of California, San Diego, and founder of the school's Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture, and Archaeology, is a pioneering—and controversial—forensic scientist employing cutting-edge technology to unlock mysteries from the distant past. Seracini is particularly interested in the whereabouts of a lost and unfinished Leonardo Da Vinci mural, The Battle of Anghiari, hidden somewhere inside the town hall of Florence, Italy. Suspecting that a clue to the painting's location is literally on a wall of the building—found in a tiny detail on a sprawling fresco by Giorgio Vasari—Seracini began the decades-long process of seeking the largely forgotten Da Vinci work. As a Dan Brown-like mystery unraveling the past through keen detective work and sheer determination, The Da Vinci Detective is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)