15 OCTOBER 1994, Page 28

Michelangelo's other David

Sir: David Ekserdjian (Arts, 8 October) mocks my challenge to Michael Hirst's defence of the National Gallery's attribu- tion of the painting The Entombment' by likening me to Frank Bruno and Hirst to Mike Tyson. Ekserdjian should know that

Professor 'Mike' Hirst refuses, even, to get into the ring. Producers of Channel 4's arts programme For Love or Money have plead- ed, without success, for Hirst to speak to his own position as set out in the catalogue for the forthcoming The Young Michelange- lo exhibition at the National Gallery.

Were `the doyen of Michelangelo scholars' to agree to participate in the current debate, my first job would be to ask the professor how he has managed to mislay a primary his- torical source of 1653, which challenges the Entombment's Michelangelo status. In the meantime, may I put the question to his for- mer student, Dr Ekserdjian?

Michael Daley

15 Capel Road, East Barnet, Herts