Fingerprint Says Painting May Be By da Vinci

A portrait of a young woman ~originally believed to be a 19th century German painting ~ may actually have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, said that a fingerprint on the canvas has convinced art experts that it's actually a Leonardo.

One London art dealer now says it could be worth more than $150 million. If experts are correct, it will be the first major work by Leonardo to be identified in 100 years.

According to the Associated Press:

Biro said the print of an index or middle finger was found on the artwork and that it matched a fingerprint from Leonardo's "St. Jerome" in the Vatican. Biro examined multispectral images of the drawing taken by the Luminere Technology laboratory in Paris. The lab used a special digital scanner to show successive layers of the work.

"Leonardo used his hands liberally and frequently as part of his painting technique. His fingerprints are found on many of his works," Biro said. "I was able to make use of multispectral images to make a little smudge a very readable fingerprint."

Technical, stylistic and material composition evidence had experts believing they had found a Leonardo as early as last year. The discovery of the fingerprint now has them convinced.

"I would say it is priceless. There aren't that many Leonardos in existence," Biro said.

Click here for the Associated Press article.

Photo shows location of the fingerprint on the canvas.