Life Of Leo

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It took a 15th-century genius to broker a rapprochement between Italy and France earlier this year, after escalating political tensions between the two nations threatened to scotch plans for a landmark Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Louvre.

Both nations have claims on the Renaissance polymath. Da Vinci was born in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci in 1452 and died near Amboise in central France on 2 May, 1519 – a date that looms large this year as dozens of exhibitions around the world are staged to mark the 500th anniversary of the master’s death.