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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Waiters walked quickly through the streets of central Paris on Sunday while carefully balancing a tray on one hand.

Waiters Race Through the Streets of Paris While Balancing Trays of Coffee and Croissants

About 200 servers competed in the 1.2-mile race—a tradition that goes back to 1914

The Louvre received a bomb threat targeting valuable paintings, including the Mona Lisa, earlier this month.

Louvre Receives Bomb Threat Against ‘Mona Lisa’ and Other Masterpieces

The message came in through the museum’s online contact form on March 17

The Horse Fair by French artist Rosa Bonheur hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. 

Five Museums Unveil Audio Guides Celebrating Lesser-Known Women Artists

The project—titled Museums Without Men—debuted in the U.S. and the U.K. during Women’s History Month

Independent craniofacial anthropologist Chris Rynn created lifelike facial reconstructions of four individuals who lived in the region.

Art Meets Science

See the Faces of Four Scots Across Thousands of Years of History, Brought to Life Using A.I.

The Perth Museum in Scotland is unveiling digital reconstructions of men and women who lived in the region from the Bronze Age through the 16th century

Collector Michael Shaw was presented with the slippers he purchased in 1970 in a ceremony at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Two Decades After They Were Stolen, Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers Returned to the Scene of the Crime. Will They Stay There?

Federal investigators have handed over the shoes to their rightful owner, who plans to sell them at auction later this year

Historic scrolls looted in World War II were unfurled for the first time in decades by experts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.

Cool Finds

Family Finds Stolen Japanese Artifacts While Cleaning Out an Attic in Massachusetts

The FBI has returned the rare objects to Okinawa, where they were looted during World War II

Researchers uncovered an over 1,200-year-old tomb filled with ceramic and gold artifacts at El Caño Archaeological Park in Panama.

This 1,200-Year-Old Tomb in Panama Contains a Treasure Trove of Artifacts and Up to 32 Bodies

Researchers found flutes, bells, gold jewelry and the body of an important religious leader inside the elaborate shared grave

Hans Holbein the Younger's 1539 portrait of Anne of Cleves before (left) and after (right) conservation

See the Portrait That Made Henry VIII Fall in Love With Anne of Cleves, Newly Restored to Its Former Glory

The Louvre cleaned and conserved Hans Holbein’s 1539 likeness of the Tudor queen, revealing its vibrant colors and previously hidden details

A bright green Banky mural appeared on a residential building in London on St. Patrick's Day.

New Banksy Mural Appears on a Building in London

Located on a wall behind a bare tree, the work features towering streaks of green meant to look like foliage

Portrait of the Artist, Vincent van Gogh, 1887

A Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait Is at the Center of a New Exhibition on the ‘Art of the Selfie’

The National Museum Cardiff is encouraging visitors to snap photos with the 1887 artwork, which is on view in Wales for the first time

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe was the ALA's most challenged book in both 2021 and 2022. 

Book Banning Attempts Are at Record Highs

A new report from the American Library Association found that the number of challenged titles increased by 65 percent in 2023

Artist Françoise Gilot was a talented painter, but her work never achieved widespread recognition in France.

Françoise Gilot’s Artistic Career Persisted Long After She Left Picasso. Now, She’s Getting an Exhibition in Paris

At the Picasso Museum, the talented painter’s artistic legacy is finally getting the recognition it deserves

The three-panel artwork depicts a javelin thrower, a skateboarder and a break dancer.

The Paris Olympics

See a Tapestry Commissioned to Celebrate the Paris Summer Olympics

Designed by artist Marjane Satrapi, the enormous triptych depicts athletes competing around the Eiffel Tower

Princess Diana opened the first dedicated ward for patients with AIDS and HIV-related diseases at London's Middlesex Hospital in 1987.

LGBTQ+ Pride

Who Will Design London’s First Permanent HIV/AIDS Memorial?

Five artists have been shortlisted for the project, which will be located near the site of the U.K.’s first dedicated AIDS ward

Two of the suspects allegedly had “knowledge of the art world” and created fake certificates of authenticity to accompany the forged artworks.

Spanish Police Shut Down a Crime Ring Accused of Selling Fake Banksy Artworks

The suspects allegedly recreated the famous street artist’s work using spray paint and cardboard to rake in over $10,000

Writer Gabriel García Márquez died in 2014 at the age of 87.

Gabriel García Márquez’s Sons Publish Novel the Author Wanted to Destroy

The famed novelist had instructed his family never to publish drafts of “Until August,” written as he struggled with dementia during his final years

This 1-Cent Z Grill from 1868 is one of the rarest U.S. postage stamps in history

Why a 1-Cent Postage Stamp Could Sell for $5 Million

If predictions are accurate, the sale would be the highest ever for an American postage mark

A video posted on social media shows a woman spraying red paint on the portrait, then cutting it with a handheld tool.

Pro-Palestinian Activists Damage Balfour Portrait at Cambridge University

The 1917 Balfour Declaration was a pivotal declaration of British support for a “national home for the Jewish people”

The original publication of "Tee-Oodle-Um-Bum-Bo," a song from La, La, Lucille

Cool Finds

A Lost Gershwin Musical Has Been Found Nearly 100 Years After It Was Last Performed

A researcher found a box containing 800 pages from the composer’s first musical, “La, La, Lucille”

This one-inch-tall gold Bionicle mask was found in a bag of jewelry at a Pennsylvania Goodwill.

Goodwill Listed This Rare Gold Lego Piece for $14.95. It Sold for $18,101

Lego created just 30 of the 14-karat gold Kanohi Hau masks for a giveaway in 2001

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