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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

The Vatican-endorsed game lets you "collect" Catholic saints.

There’s a Pokémon Go-Inspired App for Catholics

The Pope was reportedly impressed by the new game

This vintage print of Sylvia Plath was taken in 1959 at her 9 Willow Street apartment in Boston.

Sylvia Plath’s Last Letters Paint Visceral Portrait of Her Marriage, Final Years

A new volume of her correspondence highlights the poet’s whimsical, sensual and intellectual sides

This year marks the 333rd anniversary of J.S. Bach's birth

Are Classical Music Performances Speeding Up?

For Johann Sebastian Bach’s 333rd birthday, a team looked at recordings of the composer’s work over the last 50 years

Celebrate the spookiest night of the year by participating in a "game" that lets you guide a real person's actions

This Halloween, a Social Experiment Will Allow Internet Users to Control the Actions of a Real Person

MIT Media Laboratory’s BeeMe is the love child of ‘Black Mirror’ and psychologist Stanley Milgram’s notorious experiments on free will and obedience

A visitor at the reopening ceremony for Syria's National Museum, in Damascus, Syria.

Forced to Close by Civil War, the National Museum of Damascus Re-Opens Its Doors

The museum’s collections were among 300,000 artifacts hidden by officials as violence spread in Syria

Cool Finds

See L.A.’s Strangest Sculpture Shine Bright Once Again

Built in the 1970s, the Triforium was designed to sync light and music but the costly venture was ahead of its time

Obvious' "Portrait of Edmond Belamy" exceeded expectations at Thursday's sale

Christie’s Is First to Sell Art Made by Artificial Intelligence, But What Does That Mean?

Paris-based art collective Obvious’ ‘Portrait of Edmond Belamy’ sold for $432,500, nearly 45 times its initial estimate

Federal police forensic specialists investigate the cause of the fire that tore through Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Five Things We’ve Learned Since Brazil’s Devastating National Museum Fire

Luzia, the oldest human fossil in the Americas, was recovered from the rubble

Eugène Delacroix, "Crouching Woman," 1827

Art Institute of Chicago Now Offers Open Access to 44,313 Images (and Counting)

Now you can view the museum’s masterpieces without taking a flight to Chicago

Brass plaques from Benin City, on display at the British Museum.

Major European Institutions Will ‘Loan’ Looted Artifacts to New Nigerian Museum

During an 1897 raid, the British army plundered 4,000 artifacts from the kingdom of Benin

Five of the top 10 contenders were actually by British writers, including Jane Austen, J.K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkein

The Results Are In…These Are America’s “Most-Beloved” Novels, Says PBS

More than 4 million people voted, securing top honors for Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in the Great American Read initiative

Since 2002, a series of fragments with questionable provenance have flooded the antiquities market

Museum of the Bible Acknowledges Five of Its Dead Sea Scrolls Are Forgeries

Analysis suggests nearly one-third of the museum’s 16 scrolls are fakes, and study of the remaining fragments may yield similar results

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge is seen in Hong Kong, Monday, Oct. 22, 2018.

World’s Longest Sea Bridge Opens Amid Controversy

More than 275 workers were injured during the construction of the bridge, which connects Hong Kong, Macau and China

L to R: Paul Stabler, "Charles Obach" (circa 1870–79) and Jacobus de Louw, "Vincent van Gogh" (1873)

Employer Who Pushed Van Gogh to New Career Path Revealed in Studio Photo

An 1870s photograph of Charles Obach, one-time manager of the London Goupil Gallery branch, was found in the National Portrait Gallery’s collections

Montreal doctors will soon be able to prescribe free museum visits for patients and a limited number of loved ones or caregivers

Art Meets Science

Canadian Doctors Will Soon Be Able to Prescribe Museum Visits as Treatment

An afternoon of art may offer serotonin mood boost, welcome distraction from chronic pain

So long, and thanks for all the fish

At Behest of Derek Jeter, Marlins Park’s Much-Ballyhooed Statue “Homer” Is Going, Going, Gone

The artist is not pleased

Walpole's neo-Gothic estate boasts a castle-like white exterior, labyrinthine network of closets, chambers and rooms

Curious Collection of Historic Oddities Reunited in Horace Walpole’s Neo-Gothic Castle

See more than 150 artifacts originally on view in the estate during the 1700s

Trending Today

A Fond Farewell to the Original Big Bird

For five decades, puppeteer Carroll Spinney pioneered the roles of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on “Sesame Street.” Now, he says, it’s time to step down

Cool Finds

To Mourn Beloved, 17-Year-Old Cat, Artist Made Genre-Spanning, Star-Studded Tribute Album

Pharrell, Bono, Laurie Anderson, Michael Stipe, The National and others penned songs for Souris, artist Sophie Calle’s animal companion

Venice, one of the cities most at risk, has already installed submerged floodgates aimed at combating flooding, but it’s one of the few to take such preventative action

Rising Seas Pose Imminent Threat to Dozens of Historical Sites Across the Mediterranean

Venetian canals, Phoenician port city of Tyre and Croatia’s Old City of Dubrovnik are amongst the sites at risk of flooding, erosion

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