On Sat. March 21, 2026, invited to assist in Milan, Italy, at the Awarding Ceremony of the International Prize “The Universal Genius – Tribute to Leonardo da Vinci” held at the prestigious National Museum for Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci, painter engraver and historian Karel Vereycken, presented a 3 minute call for a “New Renaissance”.

Over a hundred artists and art lovers filled the auditorium and a diplomatic representative of Mexico made one of the concluding statements of the event.

Finalists for the Prize were selected for their consistency by the curators of the “Effeto Arte Foundation” of Palermo. Before becoming a Foundation, the organizers created an art gallery and a publishing group, organizing large international exhibitions every two years in numerous Italian and foreign cities.

Regarding their mission, they write: “We believe that our experiences must be turned into realities to be expanded, to counteract the intellectual flattening of our time. Especially in this historical moment, art needs spaces of maximum participation so that even the general public can take part in it. This is the path we are committed to follow for future events, in order to allow an increasing number of people to get in touch with the dimension of art, in the simplest and most direct way, as a moment of social aggregation with the artistic communities.”

Vereycken was one among the many honored with the Prize. Thanking the organizers for awarding them, several artists explained why Leonardo had been a personal and lifelong source of inspiration.

One artist said: “when I was 28, I could reproduce by memory most of Leonardo’s painting”.

Many were emotional and connected their art, not only as a shield to protect themselves from anxiety, but as a means to change the current situation of looming war.

Dear organizers, dear colleagues, honorable guests,

First congratulations to all of you and especially to the print-makers because we are becoming rare. This is my etching on copper the « Flemish Fisherman » (image on a large screen).

It is with great honor and an immense pleasure that I attend this important event and accept this kind award. Allow me to congratulate the organizers for this initiative.

Never has there been a more appropriate moment to pay tribute to the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci, because today, in these dark times of war, corruption and depredation, it is an absolute urgency that we, the artists and the art-lovers, return to the highest standards.

Where stands the world today? We have entered the century of absolute fakery, with fake news and fake currencies being produced by fake elites using fake intelligence but pushing the real world to real wars against real human beings.

Even worse for the arts, the fact that killing, murder, war and even genocide are promoted on internet as aesthetic artifacts for sale.

Let’s wake up

Already in 1789, while revolutions swept over Europe, the German poet Friedrich Schiller, in a poem, underscored the importance of ART:

“Artists!
“Man’s honor is confided to your hand,—
There, let it well protected be!
It sinks with you! with you it will expand!”

Therefore, a new Renaissance is not just a nice thing to dream about. It has to be undertaken once again, to re-humanize mankind and to recreate the required empathy for dialogue and mutual understanding.

Milan is one of the perfect places to play a major role in such a new Renaissance.

Because it was here, in the palace of Ludovico Sforza, that a brilliant young female poet, Cecilia Gallerani, whose portrait we know from the “Lady with the Ermine”, recruited Leonardo da Vinci to her musical, poetical and philosophical discussions, an encounter that clearly marked da Vinci’s rise as a towering genius. For him, just as for the renaissance thinker Nicholas of Cusa, whose writings were read here, we have to learn how to read the invisible macrocosmos in the microcosmos.

The world needs new Cecilia’s and new Leonardo’s.

Let us end the “Century of Fakery” now by organizing together, with art contests of the best kind, a new Renaissance honoring beauty and inner dignity. That is the challenge for all of us today.

Thank You,