About This Book
Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519 at age sixty-four. He left behind a god-like reputation in art, engineering, and science. Shortly before Da Vinci's death, the Cardinal of Aragon and his secretary, Antonio de Beatis, visited the maestro. The churchmen observed four Da Vinci masterpieces: The Mona Usa; The Virgin and Child with St. Anne; St. John the Baptist, and a bare-breasted Madonna -Monna Vanna. DeBeatis said, "Signor Da Vinci, your painting is a profanation It's carnality. It smacks of heresy and must be destroyed Eccksia nonn novit sanguinem. The church burns those who would displease them." The "greatest genius of all time" devised a stratagem to preserve his topless masterwork. After his death, three of the paintings ended up in the Louvre-where they are exhibited today. As to the Monna Vanna, her whereabouts remained unknown for five centuries until an American art professor, Dov Markov, with the help of beautiful Mirielle Leclerc, of the French Art Loss Registry, embarked on a dangerous search for the lost Monna Vanna. They were forced to confront powerful antagonists: ruthless international art traffickers, Russian mafia, and a fanatical religious sect known as the 'Holy Madmen."
