Florence row over search for lost Da Vinci masterpiece

Art experts have signed a petition to stop drilling into a fresco in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio which may be hiding a Leonardo Da Vinci work.

Around 150 historians from around the world have joined forces claiming it is damaging the existing work, Giorgio Vasari's The Battle of Marciano. Researcher Maurizio Seracini believes Da Vinci's unfinished The Battle of Anghiari lies beneath on a second wall.

Although the mayor of Florence has said the holes have been drilled in already damaged areas of the fresco, which would be restored afterwards, the intrusive approach has angered scholars.