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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

A Veronese official commissioned the portrait while hosting the young musician and his father during their stay in the city.

Rare Portrait of Teenage Mozart Heads to Auction

“This charming likeness of him is my solace,” wrote Pietro Lugiati, the Italian nobleman who commissioned the artwork, in a letter to Mozart’s mother

A general view shows the flooded St. Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace (L), the Lion of St. Mark winged bronze statue and the Venetian lagoon after an exceptional overnight "Alta Acqua" high tide water level, on November 13, 2019 in Venice.

Venice Declares State of Emergency as City Battles Worst Floods in 50 Years

The Italian city’s high-water mark reached 74 inches on Tuesday

British novelist Ian Fleming on the beach near Goldeneye, his Jamaica home, on February 23, 1964

For Sale: Trove of Tempestuous Letters Exchanged by Ian Fleming and His Wife, Ann

“In the present twilight, we are hurting each other to an extent that makes life hardly bearable,” wrote the James Bond author in one missive

Judith Leyster, The Concert, c. 1633

The Dutch Golden Age’s Female Painters Finally Receive a Show of Their Own

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts spotlights eight unheralded 17th- and 18th-century artists

Google's Art Camera scanned dozens of works of art in high resolution.

Lin-Manuel Miranda Teams Up With Google to Digitize Puerto Rico’s Art

The devastation of Hurricane Maria highlighted the importance of preserving the island’s cultural treasures

The late star’s “performance” will be crafted with CGI based on footage and photographs of Dean. Another actor will contribute the voice work.

The Controversial Resurrection of James Dean

In a move broadly decried as distasteful, filmmakers plan on digitally resurrecting the actor for a new role on the silver screen

The 78-card deck didn't actually make it into the James Bond film Live and Let Die.

See Surreal Tarot Cards Designed by Salvador Dalí for a James Bond Movie

The spooky deck features images of classic art and Christian symbolism with a signature Dalí twist

Texas state law classifies retired police dogs (and other law enforcement animals) as surplus government property not to be used for private benefit.

Trending Today

Texas’ Retired Police Dogs No Longer Have to Be Sold or Euthanized

A new state amendment allows handlers and other qualified caretakers to adopt retired police pups at no cost

The three-story Victorian property still looks much like it did in Rockwell's day.

A Victorian Property Featured in an Iconic Norman Rockwell Painting Is Now on Sale

The building is depicted in “Home for Christmas,” which captures the holiday season in Rockwell’s hometown

A retrospective centered on artist Judy Chicago is one of the many Feminist Art Coalition exhibitions slated for fall 2020.

Fifty U.S. Museums Champion Feminist Art Ahead of 2020 Election

Curators are banding together to organize feminism-inspired exhibitions and events in fall 2020

Robbers rammed their car into the medieval cathedral, sawing through metal bars to grab silver chalices and other irreplaceable church treasures.

Thieves Ram Into Medieval French Cathedral, Making Off With Trove of Relics

The suspects reportedly battered down the door of the Unesco World Heritage Site using a tree trunk strapped to a car

Representatives of the American Library Association deliver a petition protesting new e-book limitations to Macmillan Publishers.

Why New Restrictions on Library E-Book Access Are Generating Controversy

Macmillan Publishers will only allow libraries to purchase one copy of an e-book during the first eight weeks following publication

Officials hope to complete work on the new museum by the Jefferson Memorial's 80th anniversary in 2023

Trending Today

Philanthropist Donates $10 Million to Jefferson Memorial Museum

David Rubenstein’s donation will fund the creation of a new education center at the D.C. monument

Patriots toppled the statue in July 1776, but British Loyalists rescued and hid some of the fragments

You Could Own an Amputated Arm From the George III Statue Toppled at Bowling Green

The 18th-century lead fragment was unearthed in a Connecticut resident’s garden in 1991

It’s Death By A Million Cuts on This Slasher Planet!

Trending Today

NASA Celebrates Halloween With These Interstellar Horror Posters

The artwork highlights the weird world of exoplanets where it rains glass and planets circle zombie stars

The creepiest doll in all the land

A Minnesota Museum’s Creepy Doll Contest Is Here to Haunt Your Dreams

“The doll I disdain handling is the one with human hair,” says curator Dan Nowakowski

Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" finds its subject striking a contrapposto pose

New Research

Why Viewers Are Drawn to Renaissance Artists’ Go-To Pose

A new study finds that the contrapposto stance reduces the waist-to-hip ratio, an attribute popularly associated with attractiveness

The painting, expected to sell for upwards of $6 million, will be auctioned October 27

Cool Finds

Lost Renaissance Masterpiece Found Hanging Above Woman’s Hot Plate Sells for $26.8 Million

Experts say the panel painting was created by Florentine artist Cimabue around 1280

The Nazis seized Winter, an early 20th-century painting by American artist Gari Melchers, in 1933.

Trending Today

F.B.I. Recovers Nazi-Looted Painting From New York Museum

The Arkell Museum had no inkling of the early 20th-century canvas’ dark past

If participants successfully complete the program, the district attorney’s office declines to prosecute their case, and the arrest record is sealed

Low-Level Offenders in NYC Can Now Take an Art Class Instead of Appearing in Court

“It’s about holding people accountable, but doing it in ways that promote human dignity,” Brooklyn’s district attorney said

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