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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Adolf Hitler's signature pictured on June 11, 2015 in the Weidler auction house in Nuremberg, southern Germany.

There Is a Market for Artworks by Hitler. Many of Them Are Fakes

More than 60 works suspected to be forgeries attributed to the Führer have been seized from a German auction house

The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum was co-founded by two friends who have been collecting the figures for the past 16 years

Milwaukee Museum Features More Than 6,500 Collectible Bobbleheads (and Counting)

The duo behind project find the art in the unblinking figurine, displaying bobbleheads from all walks of life, including sports, pop culture and politics

Interior of the British Library in London

The British Library’s Dirtiest Books Have Been Digitized

The collection includes around 2,500 volumes and many, many double entendres

North/south section-perspective through the new gallery spaces at The Museum of Modern Art, looking east along Fifty-third Street.

MoMA to Close for Four Months During Major Renovations

The museum will reopen with an additional 40,000 square feet of gallery space and a new, more inclusive approach to displaying contemporary art

Salinger’s son and widow first started preparing the works for publication in 2011.

J.D. Salinger’s Unpublished Works Will Be Released to the Public Over the Next Decade

The author produced a trove of unseen writings over a nearly 50-year period prior to his death in 2010

Maria Sibylla Merian, Untitled (Toucan), 1701–1705

80,000 Watercolor Portraits (and Counting) Paint a Pre-Photography Picture of the Planet

The Watercolour World enables users to compare historical paintings with contemporary images of landscapes

Machu Picchu, aka the 'Old Mountain'

The Travel Company Making Machu Picchu Wheelchair Accessible

Wheel the World offers travelers specialized wheelchairs that can traverse difficult terrain

Princess Margaret (1930-2002), photo Cecil Beaton (1904-80), London, UK, 1951.

Princess Margaret’s Iconic 21st Birthday Dress Goes on Display

The gown is the centerpiece of a new exhibition on Christian Dior at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Is this dog smarter than its owner, or "DSTO"?

The Oxford English Dictionary Wants Your Work-Related Slang

You can submit entries through an online form or tweet it with the hashtag #wordsatwork

Detail from one of the fragments showing the name "Merlin."

Fragments of Early Arthurian Legend Found in 16th-Century Book

The seven manuscript fragments, which date to the 13th century, tell the story of Merlin leading a battle charge

Enrique Linares: "Zambra Gitana at the Roma Neighborhood in Granada." Postcard, Spain, 1910. RomArchive: fla_00026.

New Archive Reclaims the Narrative of the Roma

RomArchive includes more than 5,000 objects that highlight the creativity and self-agency of the often-maligned group

Los Angeles-based Nate D. Sanders Auctions will sell the collection on January 31, for a starting price of $3,500.

Dr. Seuss’ Letters to the Friend Who Launched His Career Are for Sale

Mike McClintock helped Theodor Seuss Geisel publish his first children’s book, which had been rejected 27 times

Conservation of the Juanqinzhai moon gate in Qianlong Garden was completed in 2016.

Architect Annabelle Selldorf Will Design New Interpretation Center for China’s Forbidden City

The restored Qianlong Garden complex, a sprawling oasis of four courtyards and 27 pavilions, is set to open to the public for the first time in 2020

The map currently features more than 130 entries divided into five categories

Interactive Map Renders Women’s Cultural Contributions to French Capital Visible

The evolving project highlights landmarks in Paris that were “financed, imagined or made by women”

The new survey follows up on findings from 2015.

Study Finds Art Museums Are Slowly Becoming More Diverse, but Progress Is ‘Uneven’

While more people of color are being hired at museums, there has been little change in diversity among senior leadership, especially

Cool Finds

Revealed: Leonardo da Vinci’s Reddish-Brown Thumbprint

The inky impression made on an anatomical drawing of a woman will go on view to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death

Teresa Feodorowna Ries, "Witch Doing Her Toilette on Walpurgis Night," 1895

Remembering the Forgotten Female Artists of Vienna

New exhibition draws on works by around 60 women who lived and worked between 1900 and 1938

Trending Today

Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ Is No Longer Cleared for Takeoff

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam’s version has been deemed too fragile to travel

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Trending Today

Who Will Be Spared in Game of Thrones, According to Science

‘Highborn’ women who have switched sides seem to do best on the fantasy series, while ‘lowborn’ men tend to die violently

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