Awesome to some of the work I'm ( indirectly ) part of on HackerNews! I'm part of Dr. Seracini's group here at UCSD, so if anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I'll pass it around to my colleagues if I can't answer it myself.
There's still tons of data to go through to further confirm the theory. After that... I'm not quite sure. Although it is highly unlikely at this point that they will remove the front wall which in itself is a masterpiece. Any damage would result in a priceless loss.
If there's a 3cm air gap, why don't they just go in from the top/bottom/sides?
And did they really drill holes in Vasari's fresco, or just use a neutron thingy, like the NY Times articles says? If there are holes, can't they just shove a small camera inside?
They did drill holes, however they were tiny and in places that were undergoing restoration. The holes were even drilled in the presence and under the supervision of the people who were doing the restorations.
This story definitely has a "Dan Brown"-type of intrigue to it: a small flag within an existing painting contains the words, "Cerca Trova" (or "seek and you shall find").
Those words lead Dr. Seracini, an engineering professor[1], to investigate whether or not Leonardo Da Vinci's unfinished masterpiece is hidden behind by that painting (containing the words, "Cerca Trova") using some very technological advanced equipment and techniques.
