Italians try to crack Leonardo da Vinci DNA code with lock of hair

Hair tagged as polymath’s in US collection to be tested against remains in French grave

‘This extraordinary relic will allow us to proceed in the quest to carry out research on Da Vinci’s DNA,’ said Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Ideale museum where the lock of hair will be displayed. Photograph: Alamy Two Italian experts are set to perform a DNA test on a lock of hair that they say might have belonged to Leonardo da Vinci.

The hair strand was found in a private collection in the US and will go on display for the first time at the Ideale Leonardo da Vinci museum in Vinci (the Tuscan town where the artist was born), from 2 May, the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death.

“We found, across the Atlantic, a lock of hair historically tagged ‘Les Cheveux de Leonardo da Vinci’ and this extraordinary relic will allow us to proceed in the quest to carry out research on Da Vinci’s DNA,” said Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of the museum and Agnese Sabato, president of the Leonardo da Vinci Heritage Foundation in a statement.