ART EXPERTS BELIEVE A NEWLY DISCOVERED PORTRAIT IS BY LEONARDO DA VINCI THANKS TO A 500 YEAR OLD FINGERPRINT. THE SMALL PICTURE OF A YOUNG WOMAN IN PROFILE WAS PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED TO BE A GERMAN WORK FROM THE EARLY 19th CENTURY AND HAS CHANGED HANDS IN RECENT YEARS FOR AROUND £12,000. BUT A GROWING NUMBER OF LEADING LEONARDO SCHOLARS AGREE THE WORK IS ALMOST CERTAINLY BY THE RENAISSANCE FIGUREHEAD BECAUSE IT APPEARS TO HAVE HIS FINGERPRINT SET WITHIN THE PAINT. CARBON DATING AND INFRARED ANALYSIS OF LEONARDO'S TECHNIQUES BACK UP THE THEORY. IF THE SCHOLARS ARE CORRECT, IT WILL BE THE FIRST MAJOR WORK BY LEONARDO TO BE IDENTIFIED FOR 100 YEARS AND WILL BE WORTH TENS OF MILLIONS OF POUNDS. THE FINGER-PRINT, WHICH CORRESPONDS TO THE TIP OF THE INDEX OR MIDDLE FINGER, WAS FOUND BY PETER BIRO, A MONTREAL-BASED FORENSIC ART EXPERT, WHEN HE EXAMINED IMAGES TAKEN OF THE PORTRAIT BY A MULTI-SPECTRAL CAMERA. BIRO BELIEVED THE FINGERPRINT, WHICH WAS FOUND NEAR THE TOP LEFT CORNER OF THE WORK, WAS 'HIGHLY COMPARABLE' TO A FINGERPRINT ON LEONARDO'S 'ST JEROME' IN THE VATICAN COLLECTION. PROFESSOR MARTIN KEMP OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY, WHO IS WRITING A BOOK ON THE DISCOVERY HAS IDENTIFIED THE PORTRAIT'S SUBJECT AS BIANCA SFORZA, DAUGHTER OF LUDOVICO SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN, WHO LIVED IN THE LATE 15th CENTURY. KEMP SAID HE THOUGHT THE PORTRAIT, WHICH MEASURES 13in x 9in, MUST DATE FROM AROUND 1496 WHEN, AGED 13 OR 14, BELLA PRINCIPASSA MARRIED THE DUKE'S ARMY CAPTAIN, GALEAZZO SANSEVERINO, A PATRON OF LEONARDO'S. SHE DIED FOUR MONTHS AFTER THE WEDDING. THE PICTURE WAS SOLD AT CHRISTIE'S, NEW YORK, IN 1998, IN AN OLD MASTER DRAWINGS SALE AS A YOUNG GIRL IN PROFILE IN RENAISSANCE DRESS, EARLY 19th CENTURY, WITH AN ESTIMATE OF $12,000 TO $16,000. IT SOLD FOR $19,000 AND LATER WENT FOR A SIMILAR SUM TO CANADIAN-BORN COLLECTOR PETER SILVERMAN IN 2007. THE PORTRAIT IS DUE TO GO ON DISPLAY IN AN EXHIBITION IN SWEDEN NEXT YEAR.
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