A secret room in Florence boasts drawings by Michelangelo

Standing in THE mausoleum of the Medici Chapels in Florence, among tombs and elegant sculptures designed by Michelangelo, you could be excused for failing to notice the doorway to the left. It leads to a cloakroom, where a trap door opens to a flight of narrow steps. At the bottom is a small vaulted room. The eggshell-white walls are covered with graceful nude figures, a falling Phaethon (son of the sun god), a looming horse’s head and several shapely legs drawn in shadowy charcoal—sketches, the museum claims, by the great Renaissance artist himself.