For sale: a huge drawing, perhaps by Michelangelo
For half a century, the Sernesi family lived in a historic villa overlooking Florence, where Renaissance artist Michelangelo grew up and later owned it. The property included several buildings, an orchard and a drawing of a muscular male nude etched into the wall of a former kitchen. Tradition has it that the work was designed by a young Michelangelo, although scholars aren't so sure.Last year the Sernesi family sold the villa. Now they want to sell the mural drawing, which was removed from its original location in 1979 so it could undergo much-needed restoration. Etched with charcoal or black chalk on plaster and measuring about 40 by 50 inches, art historians have identified the figure - which is well built, but somewhat wizened - as a "merman," a sea god, or a "satyr, "Part man,...