'Holy Shroud made by Giotto'

Hidden number 15 key to authorship and dating claims expert

The Holy Shroud of Turin, one of the most venerated objects of Christianity, was made by Italian pre-Renaissance artistic great Giotto, an Italian expert says.

Luciano Buso, who has written a book on his sensational claim, says several veiled appearances of the number 15, hidden in the fabric by the artist, indicate Giotto created the shroud in 1315.

This would coincide with carbon dating, contested by religious experts, which dates the shroud to the early 14th century, Buso contends.

"I have examined extremely clear photos of the Shroud and spotted a number of occurrences of the number 15, in the face (of Christ), the hands, and in one case even shaped to look like a long cross," said Buso, a painter and art restorer from Treviso.

The great late-Gothic artist did not mean to perpetrate a hoax when he created the Shroud, Buso contends.

"He wasn't trying to fake anything, which is clear from the fact that he signed it 'Giotto 15', to authenticate it as his own work from 1315".

Countless pilgrims visit the Shroud, believed to be the sheet Christ's body was wrapped in after the Crucifixion, in a Turin church every year.