Pen DNA

One of darkest criminal mysteries in France, the murder of a little boy a quarter century ago, is back in the news after investigators found DNA on a poison-pen letter. The body of Gregory Villemin (4) was found tied up in the Vologne river in Vosges mountains, in October 1984. The next day, a letter arrived at his home claiming responsibility for the murder. The case was wrapped up in 2001 without identifying the murderer. Prosecutors relaunched the probe last December in the light of new DNA testing techniques and the results of a five-month expert analysis were filed with the state prosecutor on Thursday.

German fake

A portrait of a young woman thought to be created by a 19th century German artist and sold two years ago for about $19,000 is now being attributed by art experts to Leonardo Da Vinci and valued at more than $150 million.The unsigned chalk, ink and pencil drawing, known as "La Bella Principessa," was matched to Leonardo via a technique more suited to a crime lab than an art studio -- a fingerprint and palm print found on the 13 1/2-inch-by-10-inch work.
Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, said the print of an index or middle finger matched a fingerprint found on Leonardo's "St. Jerome" in the Vatican. Technical, stylistic and material composition evidence, including carbon dating, had art ex perts believing as early as last year that they had found another work by the creator of the "Mona Lisa."The discovery of the finger print convinced the work was by Leonardo, whose myth and mystery put him at the centre of best-sellers as "The Da Vin ci Code" and "The Lost - Symbol."
Biro examined multispec tral images of the drawing taken by the Lumiere Tech nology laboratory in Paris, which used a special digital , scanner to show successive layers of the work so as to not damage the painting.