Canadian expert says new da Vinci painting found

12:33, 14 October 2009

OTTAWA. October 14. KAZINFORM. An art piece that had been presumed to be a 19th-century German painting of a young woman is actually an original portrait by Italian master Leonardo da Vinci, a Canadian expert said Tuesday; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.

The woman in profile has now been identified as La Bella Principessa and believed to have been created around 1496 by the legendary Renaissance artist, Peter Paul Biro, director of forensics with Art Access and Research in Montreal, said, according to a Canwest News Service report.

Biro said he drew the conclusion because of a fingerprint on the painting. The fingerprint, believed to be of Leonardo's middle or index finger, was found in the upper right hand corner of the painting and matched to a Leonardo print from his painting of St. Jerome in the Vatican, he said in a statement.

The painting, reportedly purchased by Europe-based Canadian art collector Peter Silverman in 2007 for about 19,000 Canadian dollars (17,100 U. S. dollars), is now worth up to 150 million Canadian dollars (145 million U. S. dollars); Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.news.xinhuanet.com for full version.

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