The Leonardo da Vinci Museum Sanya, now under construction on the island of Hainan, makes its debut on a national stage at the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, the only national-level fair in China dedicated to digital trade. The expo covers 170,000 square metres at the Hangzhou Grand Convention & Exhibition Center, with more than thirty countries and international organisations taking part, and a stated theme: "Meet the AI Future". Hainan takes part as guest of honour province and presents its Free Trade Port in the Hainan Pavilion, where the museum has its stand.
At the centre of the stand is the facsimile of the Madrid Codices, shown in China for the first time. Written in Leonardo's characteristic mirror script, they contain studies of mechanics and machines that anticipate solutions developed centuries later. Lost for more than four hundred years, they were found in the mid-1960s in the National Library of Spain in Madrid.
Next to the codex, the stand puts Leonardo in dialogue with the technologies of the fair. A humanoid robot guides visitors through the history of the manuscripts and answers their questions. A robot barista makes cappuccinos decorated with the face of the Mona Lisa. An interactive quiz, "Ask Leonardo", invites visitors to find out which trait of Leonardo's way of thinking they feel closest to. Five centuries ago Leonardo filled his notebooks with questions about how machines might extend human capabilities. Placing his manuscripts alongside artificial intelligence shows how much that curiosity still speaks to the present. This is the approach of the Sanya museum, due to open in 2027: scientific rigour and new technologies in the service of Leonardo's thought.
