The Berlin correspondent of the Times sends a most enter-
taining account of the probing of the Leonardo-Lucas bust. Last Sunday the core was removed by a process of electric cautery, and was found to contain a large " piece of grey canvas-like material," which when "closely examined revealed an irregular pattern of raised stitches on one side only, con- sisting of conventional forms of flowers and squares such are to be found on old-fashioned British bed-coverlets." The Berlin experts, including Dr. Bode, are not in the least down- cast at the results of the excavation. The insertion of the bed-coverlet, or waistcoat, is only part of the supposed "restoration" of the shell of the bust by Lucas. Dr. Bode declared that all artists who had seen the bust agreed with him that it was antique, adding, "at all events I have got it." Further investigations are pending, but it is not expected that the test of comparing the melting-points of the various waxes would be conclusive, as samples from Lucas's works melt at very different temperatures. The present state of the controversy is very neatly summed up by Mr. Konody in the Daily Mail as follows :—
"Dr. Bode is satisfied that he has acquired a genuine master- piece of the Renaissance ; and experts and art-lovers in this country are equally satisfied at the discovery of an artist of genius who flourished in England in Early Victorian days. And Dr. Bode has secured for £9,250 not only a great masterpiece of sculpture, but a valuable and henceforth historical example of a rare Early Victorian bed-quilt."
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