The Real Da Vinci Code

In a fascinating story for Science, Richard Stone writes about a global scientific collective’s decades-long quest to track down the genes of a Renaissance genius. Members of the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project (LDVP), which Stone has followed since its inception, claim in a new paper that they have recovered DNA—Y chromosome sequences—from “Holy Child,” a 500-year-old drawing attributed to the artist, along with a letter written by a male relative of da Vinci. Stone’s account unfolds like a detective tale, blending art-world intrigue and cutting-edge genetics, and peers into a future where these fragments could open new ways to authenticate disputed works of art.

One possibility stems from an 1863 excavation at Amboise by novelist and impresario Arsène Houssaye, who found a skull he thought was Leonardo’s and a lock of whitish blond hair that he speculated came from Leonardo’s beard. The lock vanished for decades, then resurfaced in 2019, when a private collector allowed it to go on display at the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci. LDVP plans to radiocarbon date a single strand; if it is the right age, Ausubel says, “then it may make sense to sacrifice another [strand] to get DNA.” One big advantage of prizing ancient DNA from a hair is that its surface can be scrubbed of contaminating DNA from other sources, adds LDVP member Rhonda Roby, a forensic biologist with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office who helped verify the remains of Tsar Nicholas II.