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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Researchers used A.I. to reconstruct the likely colors and brushstrokes of this landscape, which Pablo Picasso painted over to create a 1902 portrait.

Art Meets Science

Scientists Used A.I. to Recreate a Landscape Hidden Beneath a Picasso Painting

Physical reconstructions of the early 20th-century depiction of Barcelona are now on sale for $11,111.11 each

Scholars are set to undertake a "thorough technical and scientific study" of the painting, which was previously attributed to the circle of Spanish artist José de Ribera.

Baroque Painting Almost Sold for €1,500 May Be a Caravaggio Worth Millions

Spanish authorities halted the sale after identifying “sufficient stylistic and documentary evidence” linking the work to the Old Master

Lily Renée helped develop the Señorita Rio comic strip as one of the early woman creators in the industry.

Drawing on Their Escapes From the Nazis, These Artists Became Celebrated Cartoonists

A groundbreaking female comic book artist, a MAD magazine star and a counterfeiter-turned-illustrator share the floor in an exhibit in New York City

A new Netflix documentary, "This Is a Robbery," delves into the mystery of a 1990 art heist.

Based on a True Story

Five Things to Know About the Gardner Museum Heist—the Biggest Art Theft in Modern History

In 1990, two thieves made off with a $500 million cache of art by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and more. Three decades later, the works remain missing

Officials are unsure when the damage occurred but suspect that it took place several months ago.

Vandals Deface ‘Irreplaceable’ Native American Rock Carvings in Georgia

The unknown criminals painted the 1,000-year-old petroglyphs in bright colors and scratched their surfaces beyond recognition

A virtual reconstruction featured in Baalbek Reborn

Virtual Travel

Virtual Tour Restores Baalbek’s Stunning Roman Temples to Their Former Glory

The free online experience allows users to toggle between views of the ancient Lebanese city today and as it appeared in 215 A.D.

A previously unknown Thomas Gainsborough portrait of composer Antonín Kammel

Cool Finds

Newly Discovered Gainsborough Portrait Reveals Likeness of Overlooked Composer

The acclaimed British artist’s painting of Czech musician Antonín Kammel may be worth upward of $1.3 million

Artemisia Gentileschi, Lucretia, c. 1627

This Artemisia Gentileschi Painting Spent Centuries Hidden From Public View

The 17th-century portrait of Lucretia is set to go on view at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles

The yazh's design is based on detailed descriptions of the ancient instrument.

Listen to the First Song Ever Recorded on This Ancient, Harp-Like Instrument

Tharun Sekar, a luthier based in southern India, has painstakingly recreated the long-lost yazh

L to R: John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison perform at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany, in May 1962.

How a Stint in Hamburg Helped Catapult the Beatles to Superstardom

A trove of letters and photographs associated with the band’s time in Germany is set to go up for auction next month

The team used LiDAR scanning and computer modeling to recreate the acoustics of Linlithgow Palace's chapel.

Art Meets Science

Hear a 16th-Century Concert Recreated by a ‘Musical Time Machine’

Researchers modeled the acoustics of Linlithgow Palace in Scotland to transport listeners back to a 1512 performance

A stone-lined latrine was one of the few surviving remnants of a medieval hall in Oxford's Jewish quarter.

Cool Finds

Medieval Jews in England Kept Kosher Laws, New Research Suggests

An 800-year-old trash dump in Oxford reveals adherence to Jewish dietary codes

L to R: Forged works attributed to Goya, Modigliani and El Greco

A Swindler Almost Sold These Forged ‘Masterpieces’ for $14.7 Million

Spanish authorities halted the sale of the three works, which were falsely attributed to El Greco, Modigliani and Goya

The custom-made gallery will house more than 80 miniature works by leading contemporary artists.

Dollhouse-Sized Exhibition Will Showcase Mini Creations by Art-World Giants

A new show at the Pallant House Gallery in England features pint-sized works by Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread and more

The Archive of Healing lists traditional remedies, procedures and practices from all seven continents.

How a New Digital Archive Preserves—and Protects—Indigenous Folk Medicine

UCLA’s database features hundreds of thousands of entries detailing traditional healing practices

Alice Neel, Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd, 1970

How Alice Neel’s Revolutionary Portraits Put People First

A new show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art features 100 of the American artist’s paintings, drawings and watercolors

Previously, the public only had access to about 30,000 listings of works in the Louvre’s collections.

You Can Now Explore the Louvre’s Entire Collection Online

A new digital database features 480,000 works from the Paris museum’s holdings

Retouched composite image of the mural and its surroundings

Cool Finds

3,200-Year-Old Mural of Knife-Wielding Spider God Found in Peru

Local farmers accidentally destroyed 60 percent of the shrine complex that houses the ancient Cupisnique painting

Akhenaten, father of Tutankhamun and husband of Nefertiti, ruled Egypt between roughly 1353 and 1336 B.C.

Art Meets Science

Is This the Face of King Tut’s Father, Pharaoh Akhenaten?

New 3-D reconstruction visualizes what KV55, a mummy long thought to be the ancient Egyptian ruler, may have looked like

Gloria Steinem in her Upper East Side apartment

Virtual Travel

Take a Virtual Tour of Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem’s Historic Manhattan Apartment

In honor of her 87th birthday, the speaker and activist is (digitally) welcoming visitors into her home

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