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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

A small underwater lens made a coral in Indonesia look like another common lifeform.

See the Beauty of Corals, Beehives, Mushrooms and More in These 11 Images From the Close-Up Photographer of the Year Awards

Now in its seventh year, the competition honors macro, micro and close-up images snapped around the world

A 2015 photo of Ron Teasley

Ron Teasley, Pioneering Baseball Player and One of Two Surviving Negro League Veterans, Dies at 99

The former Brooklyn Dodger and New York Cuban leaves a lasting legacy of coaching and service in his hometown of Detroit

The Painter’s Father is in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

Is This Copy of a Long-Lost Northern Renaissance Portrait Actually an Original Albrecht Dürer?

Experts have long assumed that a painting at London’s National Gallery is one of many replicas of an original Dürer portrait. Now, a new book claims that this cracked copy is the real deal

A polar bear cub walks along the ice in Svalbard, Norway.

See 24 Astounding Images From the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest—and Vote for Your Favorite

The public will choose the winner of the People’s Choice award in a vote that runs from February 4 to March 18

A woman's firefighting jacket and hood from 1800-50

This New Samurai Exhibition Will Challenge Your Understanding of the Japanese Warrior Class

Silk screens, women’s firefighting robes and a Darth Vader costume are among the more than 280 unexpected items that are on display at the British Museum

The original scroll of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, up for auction in March, is 121 feet long.

You Can Buy Jack Kerouac’s Early Draft of ‘On the Road,’ Which He Typed on a 121-Foot-Long Scroll

The author taped pages together so he wouldn’t need to load paper into his typewriter. The original scroll of the Beat Generation classic is expected to fetch up to $4 million at auction

Portrait of a Canon Regular (1552) depicts an unidentified clergy member.

Women Who Shaped History

Historians Thought This Rare Renaissance Portrait by One of the First Famous Female Artists Was Lost to History—Until It Surfaced in North Carolina

Sofonisba Anguissola’s 16th-century painting of a clergyman was known only through a black-and-white photo. However, the original had been hiding in a private collection in North Carolina since 1977

Audrey Nuna, Ejae and Rei Ami at the Grammys on February 1, 2026

‘Golden’ From ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Just Won K-Pop’s Very First Grammy

The hit song, a demon-slaying self-empowerment anthem, was recognized as the Best Song Written for Visual Media

The exhibition features the last letter that Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, sent to Elizabeth I in 1588.

Read Love Letters From Royals and Romantics Across 500 Years of British History

A new exhibition at Britain’s National Archives features a letter to Elizabeth I, Jane Austen’s will and a plea to free Oscar Wilde from prison

Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid (1984), one of 25 movies added to the National Film Registry this year

Trending Today

From ‘The Karate Kid’ to ‘Clueless,’ These Are the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry. See the Full List Here

“The Incredibles,” “Inception” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” join more than 900 titles preserved by the Library of Congress

Teyana Taylor wearing a tiara inspired by the crown jewels stolen from the Louvre in October

See How This Fashion Designer Reimagined the Jewels Stolen From the Louvre for Paris Haute Couture Week

Daniel Roseberry created two pieces inspired by the tiara and brooch that once belonged to French Empress Eugénie. Both artifacts were stolen from the Paris museum in October

A side-by-side view of Turner's Marford Mill (left) and the real-life inspiration behind it (right)

You Can Buy This 438-Year-Old Mill in Wales That Inspired a Stunning J.M.W. Turner Painting

Rossett Mill was the subject of a landscape by the Romantic painter around 1795. Now, the property is listed at a little over $2 million

William Zachs stands before the Henry Raeburn and Alexander Nasmyth portraits, now on display together at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Cool Finds

The Mystery of the Missing Robert Burns Painting Has Finally Been Solved—After 200 Years of Searches and Seances

The portrait of the renowned Scottish poet vanished without a trace in 1840. Since then, scholars and sleuths alike have been strategizing about how to get it back

Students with the 4-H Club of Dauphin County gathered inside the refrigerated display room at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center to carefully break down the sculpture.

What Happened to This 1,000-Pound Butter Sculpture After the Crowds Melted Away?

At the end of the 2026 Pennsylvania Farm Show, volunteers and students carefully dismantled the creamy masterpiece so it could be used to produce renewable energy for local homes

Alex Honnold climbed Taipei 101 without ropes or safety equipment.

See How Alex Honnold Climbed a Dizzying 1,667-Foot-Tall Skyscraper Without Ropes

He became famous after scaling El Capitan without protective equipment in 2017. Now the 40-year-old athlete has completed the first free solo of Taipei 101 in Taiwan

This late 16th-century portrait of Anne Boleyn (left) closely resembles a circa 1590 portrait of Elizabeth I (right), as well as two separate likenesses of Mary I and Edward IV. The paintings appear to share the same established “face pattern” of the then-queen, Elizabeth.

Why Do These Tudor-Era Portraits of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I Look So Strikingly Similar?

The artist behind the works may have used Elizabeth’s likeness as a template in other royal portraits to visually emphasize her resemblance to previous monarchs and reinforce her status as the legitimate Tudor heir

Dimitris Economou returned this copy of Harry the Dirty Dog 36 years after his parents checked it out.

Cool Finds

A Little Boy’s Library Book Was Due in 1989. Thirty-Six Years Later, He Realized His Parents Had Never Returned It

After finding “Harry the Dirty Dog” at his dad’s home in Greece, Dimitris Economou brought it back to the library in Virginia where his family had checked it out more than three decades earlier

Frida on a White Bench, New York by Nickolas Muray surrounded by merchandise inspired by the image

Frida Kahlo’s Image Is on Paintings, Posters, Socks and Sanitary Pads. How Did Fridamania Come to Dominate Popular Culture?

An exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston features paintings by Kahlo, works by artists she inspired and consumer products featuring her self-portraits

The new miniature Sphere at National Harbor would have 6,000 seats.

A Smaller Version of the Las Vegas Sphere May Be Coming to the Washington, D.C. Area

Officials have proposed building a mini-Sphere in Maryland’s National Harbor. One-third the size of the original, the structure would cost about $1 billion

Traces of the hand stencil are still visible among younger works of art.

New Research

Can You See the Faded Outline of a Hand? Archaeologists Say This 67,800-Year-Old Stencil May Be the World’s Oldest Known Rock Art

The prehistoric artist likely created the image by spraying ochre mixed with water over a hand flattened on the wall of a cave in Indonesia

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