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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

A relief of the harbor at Portus dating to the second or third century C.E.

A Stunning Collection of Rarely Seen Ancient Roman Sculptures Is Coming to North America for the First Time

The marbles in the Torlonia Collection have been inaccessible to the public for decades. Now, some of them will be exhibited in Chicago, Fort Worth and Montreal

The rolled-up message contained a list of people who had worked on the theater's construction.

Cool Finds

Man Discovers Message in a Bottle Hidden Above a Historic Scottish Theater’s Stage, Untouched for Nearly 120 Years

A theater patron found the glass bottle behind a decorative crown positioned 40 feet above the stage. The note was dated 1906, the year the King’s Theater opened in Edinburgh

Harold Godwinson's death, as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

Cool Finds

Newly Rediscovered, a Missing Fragment of the Bayeux Tapestry Is Returning to France

Likely removed by Nazi researchers, the scrap of fabric is a small but crucial part of the tattered tapestry’s nearly 1,000-year history

The portrait recently went on display at England's Wrest Park.

Does This Mysterious Portrait Depict Lady Jane Grey, the Doomed Queen Who Ruled England for Nine Days in 1553?

After conducting a new analysis, some researchers think it may be the only portrait of Grey created during her lifetime—a conclusion that has generated controversy

The poem was discovered by researcher Leah Veronese.

Cool Finds

‘Politically Repurposed’ Copy of Famous Shakespearean Love Sonnet Discovered Inside a 17th-Century Poetry Collection

The rare handwritten copy of “Sonnet 116” features several additional lines, which may have been an attempt to insert British royalist ideas into the romantic ode, according to researchers

The red represents the legal tape used to bind papers, while the gray represents victims' ashes.

See the New Tartan Pattern Created to Honor Women Accused of Witchcraft in Scotland Between 1563 and 1736

The black, red, gray and pink design honors the thousands of individuals—mostly women—who were persecuted under the Scottish Witchcraft Act

In this 1936 photo by Eddie Worth, an anti-fascist demonstrator is arrested during the Battle of Cable Street in London.

Nearly 200 Captivating Photographs Spotlight a Century of Protest in Britain

Titled “Resistance,” a new exhibition curated by filmmaker Steve McQueen examines 100 years of struggles against the status quo, from women’s suffrage to the war in Iraq

Harper Lee on the porch of her parents' home in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1961

Eight Never-Before-Seen Short Stories by ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Author Harper Lee Will Be Published This Year

After Lee’s death in 2016, typescripts of her early fiction were discovered in her New York apartment. The previously unseen drafts offer new insights into her creative development

The reel-to-reel tape features four original Dylan compositions, including "Song to Woody."

You Can Buy a Reel-to-Reel Tape of a Young Bob Dylan Performing Six Songs at the Gaslight Cafe

Billed as “Bob Dylan’s first demo tape,” the recordings from September 1961 played an outsize role in launching the 20-year-old aspiring songwriter’s career

In 1974, thieves replaced Woman Carrying the Embers by Pieter Brueghel the Younger with a magazine cutout.

Cool Finds

Eagle-Eyed Experts Say They’ve Solved the Mystery of a Missing Masterpiece—Half a Century After It Was Stolen

Brueghel’s famous 17th-century painting “Woman Carrying the Embers” vanished from a Polish museum in 1974. Fifty years later, it’s been rediscovered at a museum in the Netherlands

The four-stud Lego brick and the one-stud Lego brick sculptures, pictured alongside a piece of hair

This Lego Brick Is About the Size of a Human White Blood Cell. It Just Became the World’s Smallest Sculpture

Created by microscopic artist David A. Lindon, the record-breaking sculpture measures just 0.00099 by 0.00086 inches and can’t be seen with the human eye

Orlik in the 1980s with The Meek Shall Inherit the World, one of the missing paintings

Reclusive Surrealist Painter Is Searching for His Lost Masterpieces

When little-known artist Henry Orlik was evicted from his London flat, dozens of his paintings went missing. Now wildly successful with more than $2 million in sales, he’s offering a reward of nearly $63,000 to get them back

This George Romney sketch was discovered in a dumpster in upstate New York.

Cool Finds

This 18th-Century Sketch by a Renowned English Portraitist Was Hiding in a Dumpster in New York

The tiny drawing by artist George Romney depicts Henrietta, Countess of Warwick. It will be sold at an upcoming auction in London

Train Smoke, Edvard Munch, 1900

See the Breathtaking Landscape Paintings Inspired by the Boreal Forest, From Europe to North America

Titled “Northern Lights,” a new exhibition in Switzerland showcases artworks of the taiga made between 1888 and 1937

Lily Gladstone poses on the red carpet at the Academy Awards in March 2024.

See Lily Gladstone’s Stunning Oscar Gowns Designed by an Indigenous Artist

The two gowns were a collaboration between Gucci and a porcupine quillwork artist. Both are now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

The photos were taken between 1966 and 1970.

Can You Identify the Mystery Photographer Who Captured Thousands of Captivating Images of 1960s San Francisco?

Discovered in an abandoned storage locker, the 2,042 processed color slides and 102 rolls of black-and-white film depict key moments in the city’s history

Birkenstock's popular Madrid style

Birkenstocks Are Not Works of Art, According to a German Court

The ruling comes after years of legal battles surrounding cheaper knock-offs, which the company argues are a violation of copyright law

Blink-182's Mark Hoppus says he and his wife, Skye, loved Banksy's Crude Oil (Vettriano) "since the moment we saw it."

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus Is Selling His Beloved Banksy Painting

The pop-punk musician is auctioning off Bansky’s 2005 painting “Crude Oil (Vettriano)” and plans to donate a portion of the proceeds to Los Angeles charities

Paul McCartney took photos during a three-month period during the Beatles' rise to fame.

Paul McCartney Is Selling His Rediscovered Photos of the Beatles’ Rise to Fame

Ahead of the sale, the collection of 36 images—all taken between December 1963 and February 1964—will be exhibited at Gagosian

The Getty Museum has acquired Cristian en el Amor de Calle by Matías Sauter Morera.

The Getty Museum Acquires Its First A.I.-Generated Artwork

“Cristian en el Amor de Calle” by Costa Rican artist Matías Sauter Morera will appear in the museum’s upcoming exhibition, “The Queer Lens: A History of Photography”

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