Dutch Queen Visits UC San Diego Project in Florence

While the search for a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece by UC San Diego's Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) is temporarily on hold pending the outcome of forthcoming elections in Italy, project leader and alumnus Maurizio Seracini (Class of '73) played host to royalty when Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands arrived in Florence for a private visit on October 15. Ahead of the visit, her staff contacted Seracini, who leads several CISA3 projects based in Florence, including the search for da Vinci's lost mural, The Battle of Anghiari . He also directs a new UC San Diego initiative to create a Florence-based research center for engineering in medicine and cultural heritage. The masterpiece disappeared in the mid-16th century when the great hall of Florence's Palazzo Vecchio was renovated and expanded by architect and artist Giorgio Vasari. For more than 35 years, Seracini has searched for proof that the mural remains hidden behind a brick wall and mural by Vasari himself. On an earlier visit to Florence when Seracini was in San Diego, Queen Beatrix was given a brief tour of the Palazzo Vecchio and its Hall of the 500. But when she planned a second trip, she asked for a guided, behind-the-scences tour of the space by Seracini in order to learn more about the effort to find da Vinci's mural.