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Claude Monet's "Waterloo Bridge" is one of the roughly 1,500 works in Gurlitt's collection

The Public Can Finally See Works From the Infamous Nazi-Looted Art Trove

Two exhibitions are exploring the treasures and context behind the cache of “degenerate” art uncovered in a Munich apartment in 2012

Mata Hari (Malay for “eye of the day”) captivated European audiences with her spiritual yet sexually charged performances

Revisiting the Myth of Mata Hari, From Sultry Spy to Government Scapegoat

One hundred years after her death, a new exhibit is putting the spotlight on the dancer’s life and legacy

A hasty 1900 pigeongram sent to H. Winkelmann by Charles Werner, a great Barrier Island resident. "Dear Mr Winkelmann," it reads, "Charlie Soborne has smashed his arm last night from the wrist to the elbow by a rifle bullet. His father says that the arm will have to be amputated at once so Ernest asked me to send you this... send a steamer at once to the Barrier... also if possible a lawyer."

This New Zealand Island’s Pigeon Mail Stamps Are Still Prized

Pigeons carried correspondence between Great Barrier Island and the New Zealand mainland for about a decade in the early 20th century

The DuSable Museum was originally located in the main floor parlor of this house.

America’s Oldest Museum of Black Culture Started in a Living Room

The DuSable Museum of African American History was founded by Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, born on this day in 1915

The new edition of Vita Sackville-West's story features art deco-style illustrations

Now You Can Read the Stamp-Sized Story That May Have Inspired Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando”

Vita Sackville-West’s hero predates and mirrors Woolf’s androgynous time-traveler

Holmes and Watson have had years of adventures together, but the first time they ever appeared in print was in a story Arthur Conan Doyle set in Utah.

The Creator of Sherlock Holmes Was, Like Many Victorians, Fascinated by Mormons

The first story featuring iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, ‘A Study in Scarlet,’ was published on this day in 1887—and set in Mormon Utah

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Why Did Dozens of Octopuses Crawl Onto a Beach in Wales?

Scientists aren’t sure, but recent storms or burgeoning populations might be to blame

Halley VI

Trending Today

Growing Ice Cracks Force Shutdown of Antarctic Research Station

The British Antarctic Survey’s Halley VI research station will close for the second year due to cracking of the ice

Cool Finds

Portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots Found Hidden Beneath Another Painting

The politically dangerous work was painted over by Adrian Vanson two year after the queen’s execution

American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks

Dennis Banks, Native American Civil Rights Warrior, Has Died

He rose to national attention after spearheading a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota

Two millennia after it served as a floor on a Roman emperor's ship and decades after it disappeared mysteriously, this mosaic returns to Italy

Roman Mosaic, Long Used as a Coffee Table, Returned To Italy

The mosaic hails from a “pleasure ship” built by the notorious emperor Caligula

Trending Today

Understanding the Doping Controversy That’s Hit Sled Dog Racing

Four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey’s dogs tested positive for banned substances, but Seavey claims it was sabotage

Kathleen Gilje, Linda Nochlin in Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 2006, oil on linen, 37 x 51 inches.

Linda Nochlin, Pioneering Feminist Art Historian, Has Died

Nochlin is best known for a 1971 essay theorizing that social institutions—and not a lack of talent—held women back in the art world

Braaiiiiinnnnssss

An A.I. Bot Named “Shelley” Is Generating Spooky Stories on Twitter

And you’re invited to collaborate on her very weird tales

Lee receiving the Medal of Freedom in 2007

Cool Finds

Unpublished Harper Lee Letters Purchased at Auction Share Intimate Reflections

The letters from the To Kill a Mockingbird scribe include remembrances of Hollywood celebrities, a bit of history and some sass

NASA's Halloween playlist captures the sounds of the solar system

Celebrate Halloween With These Unsettling Sounds From Outer Space

NASA’s new SoundCloud playlist captures the sounds of planets, comets and plasma waves

Is fear of creepy crawlies nature or nurture?

New Research

Spiders Give You the Heebie Jeebies? You Might Be Born With That Fear

New research shows that even babies are creeped out by these wriggly critters

The Abbey Road crosswalk, which has been moved slightly since 1969, in modern times.

A Short History of the Crosswalk

Pedestrian crosswalks and roads have a complicated relationship

The Russian Orthodox Church in Igiugig

Trending Today

In Emotional Homecoming, Smithsonian Repatriates 24 Sets of Human Remains

Collected by an anthropologist in 1931, the National Museum of Natural History returned the bones to the village of Igiugig

The last time Earth experienced such high levels of CO2 was three to five million years ago

Trending Today

Carbon Dioxide Levels Reached Record High in 2016

World Meteorological Organization reports that current atmospheric CO2 concentrations are at their highest level in 800,000 years

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