Restoration Workers Make Find of a Lifetime Involving a Hidden Da Vinci Painting

Restoration workers made the find of a lifetime, uncovering a Leonardo da Vinci mural from the late 1400s, hidden under up to 17 layers of paint.

The restoration taking place at the Sforzesco Castle in Milan, Italy, uncovered the da Vinci in a room called Sala delle Asse, which according to the Italian wire service ANSA means "room of the planks."

In the patch closest to the left, you can see a tree's root that restoration workers say is part of an original Leonardo da Vinci mural in Sforzesco Castle. (Getty Images)

Here's a closer look. (Image source: KXAN-TV video)

Da Vinci worked on the mural, which shows trees, from April to September in 1498 after being commissioned by then duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro.

According to the wire service, restoration workers said analysis of the mural yielded "quite interesting results," which they hope to continue uncovering.

A view of the Sforzesco Castle, in Milan, Friday, July 6, 2012. The castle hosts an art museum where sketches by mannerist painter Simone Peterzano are preserved. Two Italian art historians claim to have discovered as many as 100 works, most of them drawings, by a very young Caravaggio in the collection long attributed to Peterzano, a master Milanese artist Caravaggio studied under while a boy in the late 1500s.  (AP/Luca Bruno)

Such an undertaking has included traditional scraping techniques but also more high-tech methods like ultrasound scaling, laser instruments and chemicals, according to ANSA.

Get a closer look at the discovery in this video courtesy of KXAN-TV:

(H/T: Daily Mail)

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