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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Nature Morte, Pablo Picasso, 1921

This Picasso Could Be Yours for Just Over $100

A charity raffle is selling the 1921 painting “Nature Morte” for a bonafide bargain

A 1997 photograph submitted by Andrea Ekins

See 150 Years of Stonehenge Family Photos

The collection offers a glimpse into humans’ engagement with the monument

The blue monkey fresco at Akrotiri, an ancient settlement on the Aegean island of Thera, or modern-day Santorini

Cool Finds

Painted Bronze Age Monkeys Hint at the Interconnectedness of the Ancient World

The fascinating “tail” of how Indian monkeys might have ended up in a Minoan painting

The Wedding Dance by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566

Art Meets Science

Detroit Exhibit Celebrates Bruegel’s ‘The Wedding Dance’ and Its Controversial Codpieces

The painting’s frank depiction of drunk frivolity—and male anatomy—didn’t sit well with some viewers

Trending Today

Someone Is Gluing Cowboy Hats to Las Vegas’ Pigeons

Experts say the birds look perfectly safe—and ‘cute,’ of course

Popular lore posits that Jimi Hendrix, or perhaps the crew of classic Hollywood film The African Queen, released the invasive species in the U.K., but a new study suggests otherwise.

Contrary to Popular Legend, Jimi Hendrix Did Not Introduce an Invasive Parakeet to the U.K.

A new study debunks several colorful theories about how ring-necked parakeets became the most abundant naturalized parrot across the pond

The Elgin cast, seen on right, reveals sculptural details lost today.

New Research

3-D Imaging Reveals Toll of Parthenon Marbles’ Deterioration

A new study of 19th-century plaster casts of the controversial sculptures highlight details lost over the past 200 years

El Quitasol (The Parasol) by Francisco del Goya, digitally doctored into a scene that portrays the consequences of climate change

Art Meets Science

See Four Spanish Masterpieces Updated to Reflect the Consequences of Climate Change

Timed to coincide with the ongoing U.N. Climate Change Conference, the campaign is a digital effort to warn the world

Classic Blue is a deep shade “suggestive of the sky at dusk,” “solid and dependable,” and a “restful color,” according to Pantone.

Trending Today

Pantone’s Color of the Year Is ‘Solid and Dependable’ Classic Blue

Some have decried the selection as dull, but Pantone prefers to frame it as “a timeless and enduring hue”

Photographer Charles Marville captured this snapshot of an open-air urinal with three stalls in 1865.

How Paris’ Open-Air Urinals Changed a City—and Helped Dismantle the Nazi Regime

During World War II, the stalls served as rendezvous points for French Resistance fighters

Among the items stolen from Berlin's Stasi Museum are a pair of earrings, a ring laden with pearls and gems, a gold watch, and a gold timepiece.

Days After the Brazen Green Vault Heist, Another German Museum Is Targeted by Thieves

Burglars stole jewelry and historic artifacts from the Stasi Museum in Berlin

Some soldiers (although not necessarily the ones pictured here) dyed their lighter locks to avoid appearing washed out in photographs.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Find Hair Dye Bottles Used by Self-Conscious Civil War Soldiers Posing for Portraits

Hair-do it for the gram

February II, 2019 by Devan Shimoyama

Unraveling the Tangled History of the Hoodie

Over the years, the oft-politicized garment has straddled the worlds of sports, street culture, Silicon Valley and high fashion

Indian Roller on Sandalwood Branch, by Shaikh Zain ud-Din, Impey Album, Calcutta, 1780.

Art Meets Science

London Exhibit Celebrates Indian Artists Who Captured Natural History for the East India Company

Paintings once anonymized as “company art” will finally be labeled with the names of their creators

A portrait (by Juan Carreño de Miranda) of Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburg kings, and his father, Philip IV (painted by Diego Velázquez, of whom the king was a patron). Both men had prominent jaws, which a new study concludes is most likely the result of the family's inbreeding.

The Distinctive ‘Habsburg Jaw’ Was Likely the Result of the Royal Family’s Inbreeding

New research finds correlation between how inbred rulers of a notoriously intermarrying dynasty were and the prominence of their jutting jaw

Pieter de Hooch, Cardplayers in a Sunlit Room, 1658, detail with fingerprint

New Exhibition Leads to Discovery of Dutch Painter’s Signature and Fingerprint

In advance of a retrospective at Museum Prinsenhof Delft, experts took a closer look at three works by Pieter de Hooch

Elizabeth's penmanship deteriorated over time, with the speed and sloppiness of her writing rising in direct correlation with the crown's increasing demands.

Cool Finds

Elizabeth I’s ‘Idiosyncratic’ Handwriting Identifies Her as the Scribe Behind a Long Overlooked Translation

The Tudor queen wrote in an “extremely distinctive, disjointed hand,” says scholar John-Mark Philo

William Shakespeare (left) and John Fletcher (right) both contributed to Henry VIII, a new study suggests.

Artificial Intelligence Reveals Second Playwright’s Contributions to Shakespeare’s ‘Henry VIII’

Scholars have long suspected the play, written in 1613, was a collaborative effort. Now, an algorithm has mapped out who wrote what

Via Getty: "A group of young women in traditional costumes play Galician music with bagpipes, tambourines and drum in the historic center during the San Froilan festivities on October 6, 2019 in Lugo, Galicia, Spain."

Scientists Show Humans May Share a ‘Musical Grammar’

Across 60 cultures, songs sung in similar social contexts have shared musical features

Police from five different countries collaborated to recover the stolen artifacts.

Authorities Recover 10,000 Artifacts Stolen by International Antiquities Trafficking Ring

The organized crime group had connections across Italy, Britain, Germany, France and Serbia

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