“We found, across the Atlantic, a lock of hair historically tagged ‘Les Cheveux de Leonardo da Vinci’,” Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci (Museum of Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci), said.

“This lock of hair, which has remained a secret up until now in an American collection, will be exhibited in a world first along with the documents which attest to its ancient French origins.

 “This extraordinary relic will enable us to carry out research on his DNA.”

The discovery will be presented at a press conference at the Leonardiana library in the famous artist’s birthplace of Vinci, in Tuscany, on May 2, 2019, in honour of the 500th anniversary of his death.

It will then go on display for the first time at the Museum of Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci, also in Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, and died on May 2, 1519 in the French town of Amboise, where he had been invited by French King Francois I.

His life and work has been in the media spotlight this year ahead of the 500th anniversary of his death, with a series of intriguing revelations about da Vinci; experts announced that they believe he was ambidextrous and also had a common eye disorder which is thought to have helped him in his work.

In 2016 Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato, president of the Leonardo da Vinci Heritage Foundation, announced that they had identified an interrupted line running from da Vinci’s half-brother, Domenico, to 35 male descendants who were primarily living in the Tuscany region.

“This relic is what we needed to make our historical research even more solid from a scientific point of view,” Sabato said.

“We are planning to carry out DNA analysis on the relic and compare it to Leonardo’s living descendants as well as to bones found in Da Vinci burials that we have identified over the past years.”

Sabato added that the investigation into the lock of hair might also resolve controversy regarding “[da Vinci’s] presumed remains in the tomb in Amboise, France”.

The original burial place of the Renaissance genius was in the chapel of Saint-Florentin at the Chateau d’Amboise, in the Loire valley in France, but this was destroyed during the French Revolution.

Bones were removed from there and interred in the chateau’s smaller chapel, Saint-Hubert, but there is only presumption that they are Da Vinci’s remains.