Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Sandbags are piled high around a statue of the Duc de Richelieu in Odessa, Ukraine, on March 14, 2022.

Inside the Efforts to Preserve Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage

Here’s how experts and civilians alike are working to protect the country’s art, artifacts and scientific specimens

"Donatello: The Renaissance" makes a case for the Renaissance sculptor as one of the leading artists of his generation.

Why Donatello Was a Father of the Renaissance

A blockbuster exhibition in Florence argues that the Italian sculptor deserves to be a household name on par with Michelangelo and Raphael

"The Mice at Work: Threading the Needle," The Tailor of Gloucester artwork, 1902; watercolour, ink and gouache on paper.

Leap Into the Surprising, Art-Filled Life of Beatrix Potter in a New Exhibition

The beloved author of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” also wrote diaries in code, sketched fungi and raised prize-winning sheep

The Academy Museum of Motions Pictures received backlash on its opening for failing to portray the stories of Hollywood's Jewish founders.

The Academy Awards Museum Will Create New Exhibition on Hollywood’s Jewish Roots in Response to Criticism

When the museum opened last year, industry leaders and donors expressed disappointment at what they saw as a stunning omission in the exhibition content

Stephen Thaler's AI creation, A Recent Entrance to Paradise, has been denied copyright protection by the US Copyright Office.

U.S. Copyright Office Rules A.I. Art Can’t Be Copyrighted

An image generated through artificial intelligence lacked the “human authorship” necessary for protection

A Oaxacan figure is depicted making masa with a metate, a stone tool used for grinding corn.

New Museum in California Celebrates Rich History of Mexican Cuisine

Located in downtown Los Angeles, LA Plaza Cocina is the first institution of its kind in the U.S

Police sketches of the man and woman who stole Willem de Kooning's Woman-Ochre from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in November 1985

Why Would Two Ordinary People Steal a $160 Million Willem de Kooning Painting?

A new documentary tells the tale of a suburban New Mexico couple who allegedly stole the artwork just to hang it behind their bedroom door

Set to an asking price of $200 million, Pop artist Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is poised to become the most expensive 20th-century painting sold at auction.

Iconic Andy Warhol Portrait of Marilyn Monroe Could Sell for Record-Breaking $200 Million

One of the artist’s “Shot Marilyns,” the sage blue silkscreen could become one of the most expensive 20th-century paintings ever sold at auction

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Why Born Enslaved!, 1873

A Bold New Show at the Met Explores A Single Sculpture

The exhibition probes the paradoxes of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s “Why Born Enslaved!,” the most famous depiction of a Black woman in 19th-century art

This 17th-century Flemish tapestry, titled The Apotheosis of the Arts, is the largest of a six-part series that was stolen from the Church of Santo Domingo in Castrojeriz, Spain, in 1980. (Note the missing two-by-two-foot square in the lower left corner.)

Cool Finds

With a Stolen Fragment Restored, This Stunning 17th-Century Tapestry Is Made Whole

Spanish authorities had all but given up the search for the missing piece, which was lost in a heist carried out by notorious art thief “Erik the Belgian”

Historic Royal Palaces conservators hang a portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales, taken in 1988 by photographer David Bailey and commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery. 

How the Royal Family Uses Photography to Connect With the Public

An exhibition at Kensington Palace features images from the 19th century through today, including a never-before-seen portrait of Princess Diana

The facade of Talbot County Courthouse in Easton, Maryland, as pictured in 2010

History of Now

Maryland Removes Its Last Confederate Monument on Public Land

Workers removed the Talbot Boys Statue on Monday after years of pressure from the local community

Detail from Tolkien's Conversation With Smaug, 1937

Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien Portray a Lush ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape

The Tolkien Estate recently published a trove of rare, unpublished art by the famed fantasy author on its website

Italy's Arma dei Carabinieri seized 79 archaeological goods last year.

Officials Recover Thousands of Cultural Goods in Crackdown, Including Roman Gold Coins

International police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection performed checks at museums, border crossing points, airports and auction houses

Artists in Ukraine are assisting defense groups in welding tank traps called "hedgehogs," to push back against the Russian invasion. 

These Ukrainian Artists Are Making Traps for Russian Tanks

Berlin-based artists Volo Bevza and Victoria Pidust have joined with defense groups in Lviv to help fight back against Russian forces

Many surviving ancient descriptions are fragmented and unable to be radiocarbon dated. Now researchers say a new artificial intelligence program may help fill in those gaps.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

A New A.I. Can Help Historians Decipher Damaged Ancient Greek Texts

The developers announced that their program, called “Ithaca,” is able to reconstruct missing or damaged inscriptions

An aerial view of a ten-foot-long section of the newly discovered mosaic

Cool Finds

See Dazzling Photos of a Roman Mosaic Floor Unearthed in London

The ancient artwork is the largest of its kind found in the English capital in 50 years

Bruce Springsteen, here at a 2017 performance in Toronto, Canada. Last week, the singer announced plans for a future exhibition in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, with a completion date set in 2024.

A Bruce Springsteen Exhibition Is Coming to the Singer’s New Jersey Hometown

Set to debut in mid-2024, the Freehold show will explore the artist’s early years and musical career

This rare stone covered in carved Pictish symbols is one of just 200 stones like it that have been discovered.

Rare Stone With Pictish Symbols Discovered in Scotland

Unearthed in a farmer’s field, the monument is one of only 200 of its kind known to exist

Andy Warhol poses in his studio, The Factory, in Union Square, New York City, on April 12, 1983.

Art Meets Science

Hear an A.I.-Generated Andy Warhol ‘Read’ His Diary to You in New Documentary

An new Netflix television series employs artificial intelligence to recreate the voice of the Pop Star icon

Page 90 of 290