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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

 Margaret Hamilton wore the hat when she played the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

You Can Buy the Wicked Witch’s Hat That Actress Margaret Hamilton Wore in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Heritage Auctions is selling several pieces of memorabilia connected to the land of Oz, including the witch’s hat from the 1939 film and a 1903 edition of the book signed by Judy Garland

Wales' National Museum in Cardiff, where an artist quietly hung an A.I.-generated work on a gallery wall in October

Artist Sneaks Framed A.I. Portrait and Accompanying Label Onto a Museum’s Gallery Wall

The artificial-intelligence-generated image hung in Wales’ National Museum in Cardiff for a few hours before staffers and museumgoers noticed its presence

Syria's National Museum reopening to visitors in Damascus on January 8

Six Ancient Roman Statues Have Been Stolen From Syria’s National Museum

The theft is a serious loss for the country’s cultural heritage, which had already sustained extensive damage during a long civil war

“The Scharf Collection: Goya—Monet—Cézanne—Bonnard—Grosse” is on view at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

See Masterpieces by Monet, Matisse, Degas and Picasso in the First-Ever Exhibition of This German Family’s Private Art Collection

The Scharf Collection features French artworks from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as contemporary pieces from around the world

The ˁAin Samiya goblet, pictured here as a replica, is currently held by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The real artifact is damaged, with some of the picture missing.

Scholars Thought This Ancient Silver Goblet Told One Myth for 50 Years. Is It Actually Telling Another Story?

A new study asserts that the Bronze Age goblet may be one of the earliest known depictions of cosmology, featuring gods creating celestial order from chaos

Yoko Ono with Half-a-Room, 1967

A Sweeping Yoko Ono Retrospective Aims to Make Music in Museumgoers’ Minds

The exhibition spotlights more than 200 works by the 92-year-old artist, from provocative early works to more recent creations

Archaeologists discovered an engraved intaglio that a Roman man stationed at Bremenium in northern England likely used to stamp his correspondence.

Archaeologists Excavating a Roman Fort in Britain Discovered a Rare Red Gemstone Engraved With a Surprising Design

The intaglio was likely set in a signet ring and used to stamp correspondence at Bremenium, a military outpost located roughly 25 miles north of Hadrian’s Wall

Pauline Baker, Daisy Whitner, John Williams and Priscilla Williams Carolina are all descendants of potter David Drake.

An Enslaved Man Made Thousands of Ceramic Pots. Now, a Boston Museum Has Returned Two of Them to His Descendants

Many of David Drake’s large vessels featured his signature and inscriptions, even though he created them during a time when literacy among enslaved laborers was illegal

Since June, searches for "67" on Dictionary.com have surged more than sixfold.

The Term ‘67’ Is ‘Impossible to Define.’ It Just Became Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year for 2025

The dictionary says the viral word, which has become particularly popular among members of Gen Alpha, is “meaningless, ubiquitous and nonsensical”

Vincent van Gogh paintings on display at the Courtauld Gallery earlier this year

New Research

Can Visiting an Art Gallery Lower Your Stress Levels and Improve Your Health?

New research found that cortisol levels dropped among volunteers who spent 20 minutes looking at masterpieces at London’s Courtauld Gallery

The marble fragment is decorated with part of a lotus flower pattern.

A Man Brought His Father’s ‘Piece of the Parthenon’ to Greek Officials. They Said It Was From an Even Older Temple in the Acropolis of Athens

The engraved marble fragment likely came from an archaic temple called the Hekatompedon, making it around 2,600 years old

View of construction underway on Barcelona's Sagrada Familia in September 2025

Coastal Cities of Europe

Still Unfinished After 143 Years, Barcelona’s Dazzling Sagrada Familia Is Now the Tallest Church in the World

Last week, a new addition to the basilica—designed by architect Antoni Gaudí—brought its height to 534 feet, breaking a record set by Germany’s 530-foot-tall Ulm Minster

The bidding will start at a number determined by the price of gold on November 18.

This Fully Functioning Toilet Made From Solid Gold Could Sell for More Than $10 Million at Auction

Made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, the 18-karat gold toilet weighs 220 pounds. Another version of the artwork was famously stolen in a 2019 burglary

Composition IX, Wassily Kandinsky, 1936

You Can Listen to Kandinsky’s Vibrant Paintings at This New Exhibition in Paris

Through artworks and audio recordings, “Kandinsky: The Music of Colors” explores how music influenced the Russian artist’s abstract compositions

The stolen items include a pair of scrimshaw walrus tusks and neckpieces by American metalsmith Florence Resnikoff.

Thieves Steal More Than 1,000 Artifacts From a California Museum’s Storage Facility

The “brazen” heist at the Oakland Museum of California occurred in the early morning hours of October 15. Investigators are working to track down the missing items

Friedrich Heyser's oil-on-canvas painting depicts a scene from William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Why Hundreds of Taylor Swift Fans Are Flocking to See This 100-Year-Old Painting at a Museum in Germany

Painted around 1900, Friedrich Heyser’s “Ophelia” may have been an inspiration for a popular song on the singer’s latest album

The Mutiny on the Amistad, one of three murals depicting the saga of the slave ship Amistad, was jointly sold to two organizations that lend American art to public institutions. 

An Alabama HBCU Is Selling Historic Murals in First-of-its-Kind Partnership

Talladega College will sell four of its six Hale Woodruff murals, which commemorate the Undergound Railroad and the mutiny of Amistad

The carpa uasi served as the bottom level of this building. It originally ended to the left of the arch.

This Inca Building—the Only Surviving Structure of Its Kind—Might Have Been Designed to Amplify Sound and Music

Researchers will use 3D modeling to assess what the “carpa uasi” in Huaytará, Peru, originally looked like and how sound traveled through it

An original manuscript and cover sketch turned up in the archives of the University of California, San Diego’s Geisel Library earlier this year.

Three Decades After Theodor Geisel’s Death, a New Dr. Seuss Book Is Coming in 2026

“Sing the 50 United States!” will go on sale June 2, just in time to help celebrate America’s 250th anniversary

The portrait of Private Thomas James

The Mystery Waterloo Soldier Depicted in a Painting at London’s National Army Museum Has Been Identified

One of the few Black soldiers to receive the Waterloo Medal in recognition of his service, Private Thomas James’ overlooked story is now being told

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