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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Close-up of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (1893)

Trending Today

The Founder of Primal Scream Therapy Has Died. What Exactly Is Primal Scream Therapy?

Arthur Janov believed encountering trauma from childhood could help free people from adult neuroses

The sarcophagus at St. Nicholas church in Demre looted by crusaders, which archaeologists now believe did not contain the Saint's remains.

Cool Finds

Turkey Claims It’s Found Saint Nicholas’ Crypt

Archaeologists say the body was not stolen by crusaders in the 11th century and is still located below a church in Demre

Tripartite Mahzor, Lake Constance Area, ca. 1322 (Oxford, Bodleian Library) - The Tripartite Mahzor is a magnificent illuminated manuscript divided into three volumes, housed today in Budapest, London and Oxford. It is adorned by paintings in colors and gold, produced in a non-Jewish workshop. Here the initial word: כל ("All") opening the Eve of Yom Kippur prayers is written within a colorful panel adorned with hybrid creatures typical to this workshop. This image is taken from the Ursula and Kurt Schubert Archive held in the Center for Jewish Art.

World’s Largest Online Database of Jewish Art Preserves At-Risk Heritage Objects

Take a tour through the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, which contains more than 260,000 entries from 41 countries

The glowing end of a tapeworm took fourth place in the competition. 200x magnification

Art Meets Science

Revel in the Big Details of Tiny Things With These Prize-Winning Images

Skin cells, tape worms and fuzzy mold are among this years top photos

Cool Finds

Hemingway’s Earliest Piece of Fiction Discovered

The phony travelogue describes a trip from his home in Illinois across the Atlantic to Ireland and Scotland

The Lion of Al-lāt in 2010

Ancient Statue Damaged by ISIS Resurrected in Damascus

Palmyra’s Lion of Al-lāt, as the statue is known, once adorned the temple of a pre-Islamic goddess

Portrait of a Civil War soldier group, circa 1861-65.

The Most ‘Realistic’ Civil War Novel Was Written Three Decades After It Ended

By an author who wasn’t even alive when it occurred

Kurt Vonnegut in a 1990 portrait

You Can Now Read Five Newly Discovered Kurt Vonnegut Short Stories

Written early in the author’s careers, the works were recently unearthed in his archives

New Research

In a First, Archival-Quality Performances Are Preserved in DNA

Songs by Miles Davis and Deep Purple at the Montreux Jazz Festival will live on in the ultra-compact, long-lasting format

Bodo Mende (left) and Karl Kreile (right) are the first couple in Germany to celebrate a same-sex wedding.

Germany Celebrates Its First Same-Sex Marriages

The country’s marriage equality law, which was passed in June, went into effect on Sunday

Rock Hudson in 1954.

The Hollywood Star Who Confronted the AIDS ‘Silent Epidemic’

Rock Hudson died of AIDS-related complications in 1985

Le Corbusier's vision for cities profoundly influenced New York, though never to the degree that this concept (originally designed for Marseille, France) was ever built.

How a Controversial European Architect Shaped New York

Le Corbusier’s ideas arguably helped shape the city more than his own designs

A typical 17th-century coffeehouse scene. Controversial, right?

This 17th-Century “Women’s Petition Against Coffee” Probably Wasn’t About Women, or Coffee

It probably wasn’t written by angry, sex-deprived wives–although stranger things have happened

The front of a Nobel Prize medal.

The Perks and Pitfalls of Being a Nobel Laureate: Early Mornings, Performance Anxiety

On the plus side, at UC Berkeley you get free parking

New Research

Da Vinci Had a Hand in the “Naked Mona Lisa”

A preliminary study suggests the master painter worked on the drawing called the “Mona Vanna”

Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon Sells for $35 Million

Adjusting for inflation, Bill Gates’ $30.8 million purchase of Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester in 1994 remains the most expensive manuscript sale

The 2015 winner of the "GIF It Up" competition.

Competition Wants You to Turn Cultural Heritage Into GIFs

The latest round of “GIF It Up” seeks the best GIFs made from public domain prints, photos, paintings and more

This 1966 portrait of Hugh Hefner will go on display today in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Hugh Hefner’s Legacy as Told Through National Portrait Gallery Artifacts

Three objects explore the complicated and controversial life of the late founder of the Playboy empire

The Village of Whitesboro's old seal (left) adjacent to its new seal (right).

New York Village Changes Controversial Seal Showing a White Settler Wrestling a Native American

The seal was widely mocked and criticized after villagers voted against changing it last year

A Coco Chanel Little Black Dress, released in 1926.

Why Coco Chanel Created the Little Black Dress

The style icon created a… well…. style icon in 1926

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