Mikhail Anikin: Claims Dan Brown plagiarized him

Just days after being cleared by the High Court, author Dan Brown faces new accusations of plagiarism.

Russian art historian Dr Mikhail Anikin - a Leonardo Da Vinci expert at the Hermitage - is demanding an apology from Brown and a right to half the money made from The Da Vinci Code.

"Anikin claims he'll sue Brown in Russia and the US,'' says my Stateside source. "He says that in his book, Leonardo Da Vinci: Theology in Paint, published in 2000, he argues the Mona Lisa was an allegory for the Christian church. Anikin also alleges that, in 1998, he discussed his ideas with some experts from Houston, one of whom asked if he could pass the theory to 'an author'. Anikin says he agreed as long as he was credited in any book, but never heard back. Perhaps the most damning thing is that Anikin claims to have called his theory The Da Vinci Code.''