Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

The underlying sketches found beneath The Virgin of the Rocks

Cool Finds

Imaging Reveals Leonardo da Vinci Wrestled With the Composition of ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’

Two underdrawings detected using high-tech imaging techniques show he altered the figures twice before painting

Speakers featured in the Celebrating Indigenous Languages project.

At-Risk Indigenous Languages Spotlighted on New Google Earth Platform

The new initiative features recordings of native languages from around the globe

Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece is normally housed in the Louvre's Salle des États gallery

People Aren’t Happy About Their Increasingly Brief Encounters With the ‘Mona Lisa’

The problem stems from the masterpiece’s temporary relocation to a different wing of the museum

A worker sprays a gel on the ground to absorb lead as he takes part in a clean-up operation at Saint Benoit school near Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris during a decontamination operation on August 8, 2019.

Notre-Dame Restoration Delayed Due to Lead Poisoning Concerns

Work is set to continue next week with more stringent safety protocols, decontamination units

The author's son plans on releasing a trove of his father's unpublished works at some point during the next decade

J.D. Salinger’s Work Is Coming to E-Readers for the First Time

The author’s longtime publishing company will release four e-books in August

Trending Today

There Is Going to Be a ‘Moby-Dick’ Musical

Broadway powerhouses Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin recently previewed the performance under the whale at the American Museum of Natural History

A Police officer asks tourists to scoot.

Per Favore, Do Not Sit on the Spanish Steps

Plop down on the landmark and you might find yourself hit with a €250 fine

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter photographed on July 14, 2019 in London, England.

A Beyoncé Portrait Is Coming to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

The image appeared in Vogue’s 2018 September issue and was shot by the photographer Tyler Mitchell

"The Gift of Literature" by Jules Arthur Arts is one of the three proposals for the sculpture honoring Maya Angelou at the San Francisco Main Library.

San Francisco Is Getting a Monument to Maya Angelou

The city’s arts commission is expected to choose one of three proposed designs this week

Toni Morrison, painted by Robert McCurdy, 2006, oil on canvas

Toni Morrison, ‘Beloved’ Author Who Cataloged the African-American Experience, Dies at 88

‘She changed the whole cartography of black writing,’ says Kinshasha Holman Conwill of the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Marcel Proust in 1900.

Cool Finds

Nine Newly Discovered Proust Stories to Be Published

The works were slated to be part of the French author’s first collection of poems and stories, but were cut for unknown reasons

Moving forward, individuals will only be able to spray paint the wall on specified days

Future Graffiti Additions to Prague’s John Lennon Wall Will Be Strictly Regulated

Local authorities are introducing security measures in response to vandalism, obscene graffiti

Eva Papamargariti, Acedia (still from video work), 2019.

Miami Museum Launches Exhibition Exclusively on Instagram

Over eight weeks, ‘Joyous Dystopia’ is posting digital works by eight different artists

The musical finds the six queens competing for the dubious honor of telling the most tragic tale

The Six Wives of Henry VIII Are Coming to Broadway

In ‘Six,’ the Tudor queens get a chance to share their side of the story

Out of 200 styluses found during excavations, this was the only one with an inscription

Cool Finds

This Ancient Roman Souvenir Stylus Is Inscribed With a Corny Joke

Loosely translated, the message reads, ‘I went to Rome and all I got you was this stylus’

M. Amité, and his right-hand cat, Apollo

A Steinbeck Story About a Chef and His Cat Has Been Published in English for the First Time

The author wrote ‘The Amiable Fleas’ in 1954, for the French newspaper Le Figaro

Markers will be added to the "Lion of Atlanta" monument, along with three others.

New Markers in Atlanta Aim to Put Confederate Monuments in Context

The city is installing the historical markers next to four of its most prominent Confederate memorials

Ben Enwonwu, "Christine," 1971

Cool Finds

Family Realizes Long-Forgotten Portrait Was Painted by Famed Nigerian Artist Ben Enwonwu

Last year, a similarly rediscovered portrait by Enwonwu sold for $1.6 million, setting an auction record for Nigerian Modernist art

Wait, isn’t the moon made of cheese though?

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

Apollo 11 Mission Memorialized With 2,200 Pounds of Butter

A buttery Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, along with a couple cows, are on display at the Ohio State Fair

Egon Schiele, Reclining Nude Girl (around 1918)

Drawing Found in Thrift Store Turns Out to Be an Original Egon Schiele

The work, on display as part of an exhibit at Galerie St. Etienne, is expected to sell for between $100,000 to $200,000

Page 132 of 285