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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Aerial view of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia

Turkey Controversially Converts Hagia Sophia From Museum Into Mosque

The move has attracted criticism from Unesco, Pope Francis, the Russian Orthodox Church and others

Coming Home, a 1947 painting purportedly by Gertrude Abercrombie, is one of the works now suspected to be a forgery.

FBI Raids Northern Michigan Home Linked to Suspected Art Forgery Ring

Paintings formerly attributed to Gertrude Abercrombie, Ralston Crawford and George Ault are now thought to be fakes

The Supreme Court building in Washington, DC

What a New Supreme Court Decision Means for Native American Sovereignty

The landmark ruling upholds the sanctity of treaties between the United States and American Indians—to a certain point

At its peak, the saint's Canterbury Cathedral shrine drew upward of 100,000 visitors each year.

Virtual Travel

Researchers Digitally Reconstruct Thomas Becket’s Razed Canterbury Cathedral Shrine

The model, centered around the medieval saint’s golden casket, is now available to view online

Volunteers repair and re-chalk the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England. The 180-foot figure has been on the grassy hillside as long as anyone alive can remember, but many wondered if it might be thousands of years old. Now, new evidence suggests the drawing dates not to the prehistoric period, but to medieval times.

Cool Finds

Snail Shells Date England’s Cerne Abbas Giant to Medieval, Not Prehistoric, Era

Researchers are conducting additional testing aimed at confirming the chalk figure’s age and origins

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, I See Red: Target, 1992

National Gallery of Art Acquires Its First Painting by a Native American Artist

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s work addresses questions of identity and appropriation

Nancy Baker Cahill's Liberty Bell, as seen over the National Mall

This AR Artwork Reimagines Historical Spaces Across the U.S.

Nancy Baker Cahill’s red, white and blue “Liberty Bell” rings over sites in six major cities

Archaeologist Ben Edwards and his daughter Bella recreated the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape in the computer game "Minecraft."

Explore a 5,000-Year-Old Welsh Tomb Recreated in Minecraft

The virtual world now boasts a cube-based recreation of Bryn Celli Ddu in its heyday

Rock piles like the one pictured here helped ancient miners navigate the subterranean network.

An Underwater Cave Once Hosted the Americas’ Oldest Known Ocher Mine

Humans have valued the rich red pigment for hundreds of thousands of years

A black musician seen in Piero di Cosimo's Perseus Frees Andromeda, 1510-1515

How the Uffizi Gallery Is Highlighting Black Figures in Renaissance Art

Each Saturday, the Florentine museum will release a new educational video on TikTok and Facebook

The Federal University of Minas Gerais’ Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden houses 260,000 artifacts ranging from fossils to folk art.

Second Brazilian Museum Fire in Two Years Sparks Calls for Reform

Authorities are assessing the damage caused by a June 15 blaze at the Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden in Belo Horizonte

Frida Kahlo, circa 1950

Why Scholars Are Skeptical of Claimed Rediscovery of Lost Frida Kahlo Masterpiece

“The Wounded Table,” a 1940 work by the Mexican painter, disappeared 65 years ago

A virtual version of Mount Vesuvius looms over the exhibition.

Paris Exhibition Recreates Pompeii’s Final Hours

Those unable to visit the show in person can access a trove of online resources related to the immersive experience

This 1846 daguerreotype is likely the oldest surviving photograph of a Māori person.

Newly Discovered Portrait May Be Oldest Known Image of Māori Person

The photo depicts Hemi Pomara, who was kidnapped and “exhibited” by British colonialists in London during the 1840s

Louisa May Alcott wrote "Aunt Nellie's Diary" in 1849, almost 20 years prior to the publication of Little Women.

Early Short Story by Louisa May Alcott Published for the First Time

The “Little Women” author wrote “Aunt Nellie’s Diary” in 1849, when she was 17 years old

A 1967 funeral program for Mrs. Julia Burton

New Digital Archive Explores 133 Years of African American Funeral Programs

The online resource offers a veritable treasure trove of information for historians and genealogists

The "restored" painting may be a copy of this 17th-century work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.

Botched Art Restoration Renders Virgin Mary Unrecognizable

The failed makeover—one of several to surface in Spain in recent years—has prompted calls for stricter regulation of the field

Following the Monday performance, the Barcelona opera house donated its 2,292 houseplants to local health care workers.

Covid-19

Audience of Plants Roots for Barcelona Opera House on Opening Night

The leafy crowd enjoyed a string quartet’s performance of Puccini’s “Crisantemi”

Debate over Beethoven's race sparked once again on Twitter last week. He is depicted here in a portrait by August Klober from 1818.

Was Beethoven Black? Probably Not, but These Unsung Composers Were

A music scholar examines the history of the decades-old theory, and what its permanence tells us about who is considered ‘canon’ in classical music

Statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The statue will be removed, the city announced Sunday.

The Racist Statue of Theodore Roosevelt Will No Longer Loom Over the American Museum of Natural History

As plans emerge to remove the controversial figure, the 26th President’s legacy remains sullied by his colonialist ideology

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