Historians Discover Letters and Numbers in Mona Lisa's Eyes

This news story is bound to keep those da Vinci theorists up for the next few nights.  Yahoo News reported early this morning that historians have actually found tiny numbers and symbols painted in the eyes of the Mona Lisa.  The article states that the new found aspect of the Mona Lisa cannot be seen by the naked eye, but can be clearly seen with a magnifying glass.

Here are the details from that article:

"In the right eye appear to be the letters LV which could well stand for his name Leonardo Da Vinci while in the left eye there are also symbols but they are not as defined.  It is very difficult to make them out clearly but they appear to be the letters CE or it could be the letter B - you have to remember the picture is almost 500 years old so it is not as sharp and clear as when first painted.  While in the arch of the bridge in the background the number 72 can be seen or it could be an L and the number 2."

The discovery was made after members of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage magnified high resolution photos of the Mona Lisa.  Why this group had undertook magnifying areas of the painting is not made clear in the article.  This might also put to rest the theories that the real Mona Lisa wasn't returned to the Louvre after the painting's theft in 1911.

I'll be doing some digging to try and find some high resolution images of the Mona Lisa on line today.  It is possible that we might be able to see what's in the Mona Lisa's eyes using the same method as the original researchers.  I can guarantee that the image that is posted with this article is no where near the resolution needed for such an analysis.

What else did da Vinci hide in the Mona Lisa and other paintings?  I'm sure there will be a lot of folks getting out their magnifying glasses in the next few days.