UC San Diego in the Hall of the Lost Da Vinci

Why are the UC San Diego name and logo prominently displayed across one of the most famous walls in Florence? It is a story that starts more than five hundred years ago, when a Leonardo Da Vinci mural of the 'Battle of Anghiari' was painted on the wall of the Salone dei Cinquecento (the Hall of the Five Hundred). According to Giorgi Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists , "It was ordained by public decree that Leonardo should be employed to paint some fine work," to celebrate the new republic that had just driven the Medici family from power. "In 1503, the hall was allotted to him by Piero Soderini, the Gonfaloniere of Justice." Da Vinci notes rather ominously in his own journal that he began to paint on June 6, 1505, just as a storm broke over the city and "great rain poured down until nightfall." But you won't find the celebrated battle scene today; in its stead you will find another magnificent mural entrancing visitors, the 'Battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana' painted by Giorgio Vasari in 1563. However, we know that the Anghiari mural was still there in 1549, when Anton Francesco Doni wrote to a friend traveling to Florence: "Having ascended the stairs of the Salone Grande, take a diligent view of a group of horses (a portion of Leonardo's battle), which will appear a miraculous thing to you." Ascend those same stairs today, and another "miraculous thing will appear to you." That same portion of the wall now has a painted, cloth-covered scaffolding that stretches from floor to ceiling.