Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Rome, From Mount Aventine, J.M.W. Turner, 1836

J.M.W. Turner Painted This Breathtaking Roman Landscape Nearly 200 Years Ago. If You Look Closely, You Can Still See His Fingerprints

The Romantic painter completed “Rome, From Mount Aventine” in the 1830s. It became his most expensive artwork in 2014, and it’s expected to sell for another record-breaking sum in December

Anne Carson, photographed in 2015, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature on October 8.

Canadian Poet Anne Carson Brings Ancient Wisdom to Modern Audiences. Now, She’s a Nobel Laureate in Literature

The 76-year-old poet, translator and essayist is renowned for her “bold and inventive” approach to blending poetry, prose and everything in between, leading to what the Swedish Academy calls “new forms for contemporary literature”

In this 1956 photo, Salvador Dalí works on the book's cover, which is made of bronze and bejeweled with gems, pearls, forks and shells. 

Thieves Pulled Off Another Shocking Art Heist in France. This Time, They Took a 330-Pound Bronze Book Cover Designed by Salvador Dalí

The volume, “Livre de l’Apocalypse,” was a “masterpiece” collaboration of 14 artists and writers. It is one of the heaviest and most expensive books ever made

Students from the universities of Kent and Sussex fighting at the first Battle of Hastings re-enactment on October 14, 1966

Cool Finds

Hundreds of British College Students Clashed With Wooden Swords in a 1966 Re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings. Watch the Rediscovered ‘Time Capsule’ of Lost Footage

A local videographer shot 300 reels of color film during the re-enactment, which shows “soldiers on foot getting remarkably close to horses” and “a rather relaxed attitude towards health and safety.” The event sparked an annual tradition that continues to this day

Jack Nicholson peering through an axed-in door in The Shining.

Stanley Kubrick’s Personal Archive Is Going Up for Auction, Including the Ax From ‘The Shining’ and the Star Child From ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

The legendary director’s on-set chair, annotated scripts and props give a glimpse into the meticulous moviemaking process behind films like “Full Metal Jacket” and “Eyes Wide Shut”

The dishes were packed carefully, and many remained intact.

Cool Finds

A Ship Carrying Stacks of Ancient Dishware Sank Off the Coast of Turkey 2,100 Years Ago. Its Ceramic Cargo Is Still Remarkably Intact

Researchers believe that the vessel’s plates and bowls were made in the ancient city of Rhosus, once praised by Roman statesman Cicero for its “fine pottery”

A portrait sculpture of the emperor Tiberius, whose toga was originally painted pink, is the new exhibition's thematic centerpiece.

A New Exhibition Reveals How Hot Pink Togas and Floral Perfumes Conveyed Power in the Roman Empire

The show in Copenhagen explores the relationship between fashion and influence in ancient Rome

Jill Garrett's Head in the Clouds won second place in the studio portrait category.

See the Impressive Winning Images of Adorable, Somber and Commanding Canines From the 2026 Dog Photography Awards

Posing pit bulls, stoic galgos and frisbee-chasing Aussies feature among the annual competition’s prize winners

Dozens of Victorian-era “hairworks” from Leila’s Hair Museum, which closed for good last year, are now on display at the Morbid Anatomy Library in Brooklyn.

Dozens of Curious Artworks Created With Woven Strands of Human Hair Come to New York’s Morbid Anatomy Library

So-called hairworks were popularized during the Victorian era as a means of grieving the deceased

The life-size statue depicted Benjamin Harrison, the nation’s 23rd president.

An Arson Investigation Is Underway After a Suspected ‘Senseless Act of Vandalism’ Destroys a Newly Installed Benjamin Harrison Statue

The 3D-printed piece was created by students and faculty at Indiana University Indianapolis and had been installed on September 16

The exhibition features damaged art from all over the world.

A New Exhibition Spotlights 4,500 Years of Broken, Shot-Up and Degraded Artworks to Explore the ‘Power of the Fragment’

The show, on view in Florence and coming to D.C. next year, examines the history and impact of destroyed sculptures throughout time and across cultures

Mountains and Clouds (1976) photographed in 2020, when the clouds had been removed from the atrium

After a 12-Year Absence, Alexander Calder’s Mammoth Last Sculpture Finally Returns in Full to Capitol Hill

Calder’s final work, “Mountains and Clouds,” was removed from the Hart Senate Office Building in 2014 over fears about its structural integrity

Art historians believe the rediscovered red-chalk sketch may have been a character study for the young girl who appears in the Manet’s The Old Musician (1862). 

An Enigmatic Chalk Drawing, Rediscovered in a Private Italian Collection, Has Been Identified as the Long-Lost Work of Édouard Manet

The sketch of a young girl, in the red chalk characteristic of Manet’s 1860s life studies, is thought to be linked to several of the artist’s paintings

Built in the mid-16th century, the Villa Silvestri Rivaldi sat abandoned for decades just a short walk from Rome’s Colisseum. A new improvement project is revitalizing the complex and bringing its interior artworks to light. 

In One of Rome’s Most Famed and Neglected Villas, Centuries-Old Risqué Frescoes, Painted Over by Nuns, Have Reappeared

Nearly a year into a $40 million restoration of the Villa Silvestri Rivaldi, conservators are rediscovering and reviving 16th-century art

An 1857 storage jar signed by David Drake

The Milwaukee Art Museum Just Returned Two Ceramics Made by Enslaved Potter David Drake to His Descendants

The two vessels, one of them a signed 1855 jar, are the latest to be reinstituted to Drake’s family, who are on a mission to acquire the works of their ancestor

A display case featuring "Dolls as Designers," including Yves Saint Laurent (second from left) and Anna Sui (second from right)

Centuries Ago, Royals Dressed Up Their Dolls to Share the Latest Fashions. See How Barbies, Baby Dolls and Other Tiny Trendsetters Have Inspired Designers Ever Since

A new exhibition at the Museum at FIT in New York City showcases more than 170 objects that trace the often-unexpected relationship between dolls and fashion

A bronze helmet with hammered decoration from Heraklion, Crete

Cool Finds

See a Stunning Collection of Stolen Greek Artifacts, Spanning 5,000 Years, That Were Just Returned to Greece

The antiquities were seized at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by investigators from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr.

Monet painted Rouen Cathedral more than 30 times in the 1890s.

Why Did Claude Monet Paint the Same Scenes Over and Over Again? The Impressionist Artist Was Obsessed With Capturing the Fleeting Nature of Time

An upcoming exhibition at Tate Modern will feature more than 60 artworks created by Monet between the 1870s and 1920s. These pieces reveal how he documented changing light and weather conditions

Jean Metzinger’s Woman With a Fan (1913) was gifted to the Art Insitute of Chicago by Mr. and Mrs. Sigmund Kunstadter.

This Cubist Painting With a Mysterious Provenance Hung in the Art Institute of Chicago for Decades. Now, the Museum Will Return It to Its Rightful Jewish Heirs

Infrared imaging links the 20th-century Jean Metzinger work to a collector whose pieces were forcibly auctioned under Nazi orders during World War II

The fragment of a cuneiform tablet was found at the site of Hattusa, the ancient Hittite capital.

Cool Finds

Researchers in Turkey Have Unearthed an Ancient Fragment Inscribed With the World’s Oldest Peace Treaty

The piece of a clay tablet is marked with Akkadian cuneiform, and its text belongs to the Kadesh Peace Treaty, created by ancient Egyptians and Hittites in the 13th century B.C.E.

Page 3 of 297