Da Vinci restoration shelved

Da Vinci never completed the painting

ROME, Italy -- Museum officials in Florence have shelved controversial plans to restore Leonardo da Vinci's unfinished masterpiece "The Adoration of the Magi" after recent tests showed the painting was in "good health."

"There will be no restoration done, at least not for now," Florence art superintendent, Antonio Paolucci, told The Associated Press.

A storm broke out in the art world last year when plans for the refurbishment were announced. Scores of international art experts voiced concern that the renovation would cause irreparable damage to painting.

ArtWatch International, a restoration monitoring group, had urged museum officials to postpone the project pending an independent evaluation.

"Culture has won a battle," ArtWatch's president, James Beck, told AP.

Paolucci denied officials had caved in to the demands of the experts.

Extensive diagnostic testing had always been envisaged to determine if the restoration was indeed necessary, he said.

The results of those tests showed the 15th-century painting to be in "good health," he said.

But they also revealed some surprising new facts, Paolucci said.

Long believed to have been painted on wood, the sepia-toned work was in fact painted on canvas and then pasted onto a large wooden panel.

The image of a small elephant hidden under layers of paint also emerged from the tests.

The "Adoration of the Magi" depicts the New Testament's account of the three Magi paying homage to the newborn Christ and his mother, the Virgin Mary. It was started around 1481 and never completed by the Italian Renaissance master.

The painting will go back on display at Florence's Uffizi Gallery in about a month's time once treatment to prevent the wooden panel from being infested with insects is completed, Paolucci said.

According to Beck, the Italian museum officials have set a precedent in the art world.

"For once, the tests were not carried out by institutions or individuals who will then do the restoration," he told AP.