A project searching for a lost mural by Leonardo da Vinci behind a fresco painted by Giorgio Vasari in the Palazzo Vecchio, now Florence's city hall, has been suspended and the scaffolding that has covered the fresco for months will be dismantled this week. Last November, a team led by Maurizio Seracini, the director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology at the University of California, bored several holes into the Vasari work to allow an endoscopic probe to look for possible remnants of Leonardo's The Battle of Anghiari, commissioned by the Republic of Florence around 1503. The controversial decision to perforate the Vasari fresco, painted some 50 years later, led to objections from many conservators. This summer the local art authorities turned down a request to bore new holes to pursue the research, effectively shutting it down. The project was backed by the National Geographic Society and had the support of the mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi. The six points of entry for the probe, chosen by the Florentine restorers working on the project, were made in places where there was no original paint, but they did not correspond to points Mr. Seracini had been hoping to explore. Nonetheless, in a statement issued last month, the National Geographic Society said that the data derived from the probes had encouraged the scientific team. "The results of the research support Seracini's theory that the lost 'Battle of Anghiari' lies behind a wall built by Giorgio Vasari," the statement said. Reached by telephone in Florence, Mr. Seracini, who has searched for the Leonardo fresco for decades, said the project had had to overcome many obstacles from the start. "And now we have lost an opportunity," he said.