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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

Library dining room of the Sir John Soane Museum

Europe’s Small House Museums

Sir John Soane’s Museum in London and other idiosyncratic house museums in Europe yield pleasures beyond their size

Y.Z. Kami's portrait of an individual deep in meditation, exuding tranquility

What’s Up

Peter Marra, with a cardinal.

Making History

Early Birds

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Robert Bullard

Environmental Justice Advocate

President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned the double eagle in 1905. He later pronounced the gold piece to be “the best coin that has been struck for 2,000 years.”

Golden Grail

Few U.S. coins are rarer than the never circulated 1933 double eagle, melted down after the nation dropped the gold standard

Colombian singer Carlos Vives (left, with Egidio Cuadrado at the 2007 festival) is bringing worldwide fame to the genre.

Squeeze Play

A new Smithsonian Networks Film brings alive the upbeat music of Colombia’s cowboy country

Pools at the Kogod Courtyard reflect the roof—and invite visitors to walk on water.

From the Castle

What a Year!

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Letters to the Editor

Readers Respond to the May Issue

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No Touch-Ups Necessary

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Rogues Gallery

Ten of the most incredible art heists of the modern era

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Journalists Injured on Assignment

Raffaele Reports on His Recovery

Robert Rauschenberg in 1969

Recalling Robert Rauschenberg

On the artist’s innovative spirit

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Rauschenberg’s Work Ethic

A horse touted as being from the Tang dynasty, but with only one genuine part in the unglazed underside.

Forensic Science for Antiques

Revealing art secrets—and exposing forgeries

Filing cabinets full of fakes at the Museum of Fakes

Showcasing Shams

At the Museum of Fakes, what’s not real is still art

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Take a Close Look

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Homepage Artistry

Xu Bing's Book from the Sky(1987-1991), hand printed books, ceiling and wall scrolls printed from wood letterpress type using false Chinese characters, dimensions variable, installation view at "Crossings," National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1998).

China’s Artistic Diaspora

For sixty years, upheavals in Chinese politics have not only remade the country’s economy–they have remade Chinese art

A Parisian Ball - dancing at the Marbille, Paris. Drawn by Winslow Homer.

“No More Long Faces”

Did Winslow Homer have a broken heart?

View of the National Mall

Washington, D.C.

A Brief History of Pierre L’Enfant and Washington, D.C.

How one Frenchman’s vision became our capital city

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