Maurizio Seracini (born 1946) is a self-proclaimed diagnostician of Italian art.
A 1973 graduate in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), he founded, in 1977, the first company in Italy for diagnostic and non-destructive analyses on art and architecture, Editech srl, Diagnostic Center for Cultural Heritage in Florence. Adapting technologies from the medical and military fields and other technical measuring instruments he has made possible diagnostics of art and search for art without destroying the artwork itself.
In 2007 Seracini founded the Center for Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (now known as the Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI)) at the University of California, San Diego's Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) in 2007 and served as its director until 2013. From 2014 to 2016, he was a visiting professor at the School of Engineering at Monash University, Melbourne.
Seracini has studied over 4,300 works of art, most notably Leonardo da Vinci's lost mural, the Battle of Anghiari, and The Last Supper, Boticelli's Allegory of Spring and Caravaggio's Medusa. He used high-frequency, surface-penetrating radar to locate the painting behind Vasari's Battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana. Seracini's theory was confirmed by an investigation authorized by the city council of Florence and the Italian Minister of Culture at the time.
Seracini has been collaborating extensively with prominent art investment entities in the Middle East since 2018, including the well-known Majestic Arts, located in Dubai.
Seracini is well known for his search for the Leonardo da Vinci mural The Battle of Anghiari in the Salone dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, which has been the subject of significant controversy within the art community. Evidence against the continued existence of this mural was presented by 25 interdisciplinary experts, whose findings were published in 2018.
Seracini is also notable for his multi-spectral diagnostic work on Leonardo's Adoration of the Magi which informed major restoration treatments carried out in 2016 by the Opificio delle pietre dure.
References
- EDITECH
- Tierney, John (October 5, 2009). "A High-Tech Hunt for Lost Art". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
- "La Sala Grande di Palazzo Vecchio e la Battaglia di Anghiari di Leonardo da Vinci Dalla configurazione architettonica all'apparato decorativo | Casa editrice Leo S. Olschki".
- "57. The restoration of Leonardo da Vinci's Adoration of the Magi". Edifir. September 17, 2021.