A hidden message in a painting is the first evidence of having possibly found a work by Leonardo da Vinci that has remained hidden for the last 400 years.

Through the insertion of an endoscopic probe behind a mural at the Palazzo Vechio or "Palazzo Viejo" in Florence, Italy, the team of Mauricio Zeracini, a bioengineer specialized in art analysis, was able to obtain a sample in which They found traces of a dark pigment that Da Vinci also used to create the Mona Lisa, as well as a brown material that was apparently applied by a brush.

In 1503, Da Vinci was commissioned to perform a work called "The Battle of Anghiari" at the Palazzo Vechio, the government house in Florence. This painting, thought lost after a fire that suffered the palace in the sixteenth century, is one of the most significant and important pieces of Da Vinci and it is possible that this was preserved by the mural "Battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana 'by Giorgio Vasari.

After the words "near trova" (search and find) in the Vasari mural were discovered, a group of archaeologists began to investigate behind it. The mural was pierced by a probe equipped with a camera that allowed the team to collect samples and see exactly what was behind Vasari's mural. The endoscope found an empty space behind the wall, which points to the possibility that Vasari has built his mural in front of Da Vinci, thus preserving it.

The following image is the painting that is thought behind Vasari mural: