TORONTO - A French inventor who claimed last fall to have revealed secrets about the "Mona Lisa" now says his technology has led to the authentication of a Leonardo da Vinci colour drawing owned by a Swiss art collector.
"Profile of a Young Fiancee" was originally purchased for $20,000 about 10 years ago, said Pascal Cotte, who runs the Paris-based company Lumiere Technology.
Cotte used a "multi-spectral" camera to digitalize the chalk drawing, which was done between 1482 and 1485 and restored in the 19th century.
"We can see 'inside' the painting," he said Thursday of the technology. "We can virtually remove the restoration."
Cotte said three art historians have used his images to confirm that the work is a Leonardo. A book with their findings is to be published next month.
Cotte and his business partner Jean Penicaut are in Toronto for Idea City, a gathering of thinkers from various disciplines that is organized by media guru Moses Znaimer.
The Lumiere technology made headlines last fall when Cotte claimed it had uncovered secrets about the "Mona Lisa," including why Leonardo's famously enigmatic subject has no eyebrows.
Cotte said his 240-megapixel scan of the "Mona Lisa" showed traces of her left brow, which had been removed by previous restoration efforts.
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
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