Smart News Arts & Culture

"Rabbit" sold at Christie's for a record-breaking $91.1 million

Jeff Koons’ ‘Rabbit’ Breaks the Auction Record for Most Expensive Work by Living Artist

The stainless steel sculpture sold for $91.1 million, surpassing the $90.2 million record set by David Hockney last November

Ruby Taboh's stilton cheese.

Cool Finds

Cheese Made From Celebrity Belly Button and Armpit Bacteria Goes on Display

Five types of "human cheese" from cheddar to Cheshire are on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Constance Wu's character, Rachel Chu, wears the gown to a wedding

Constance Wu’s ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Dress Is Coming to the Smithsonian

Curator Theo Gonzalves says he hopes the gown will enable Asian American visitors “to see themselves in the museum, … see themselves in American history"

Structures unearthed at Achtriochtan may be linked with the bloody massacre

Archaeologists Are Excavating Site of Scottish Massacre That Inspired the ‘Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding

In 1692, members of the Campbell clan turned on their MacDonald hosts, killing at least 38 men and sending women and children fleeing into the hills

Can a bike ride a day keep the doctor away?

Welsh Doctors Can Now Prescribe Free Bicycle Rides

The pilot program joins a recent spate of 'social prescribing' activities to hit the U.K.

The Louvre Pyramid is arguably the architect's best-known work.

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I.M. Pei Dies at 102 Years Old. Here Are Some of His Essential Buildings

The architect changed the way the world sees itself

Closeup of the divisive fruit

A Stinky Durian Fruit Led to the Evacuation of an Australian Library

It was initially feared that the overwhelming stench stemmed from a gas leak

Susan Sontag photographed in 1972.

Did Susan Sontag Write the Seminal Book Attributed to Her Husband?

An upcoming biography claims that before she became a towering literary figure, Sontag was the true author of <i>Freud: The Mind of the Moralist</i>

Sculptor Hannah Stewart has created a life-size bronze statue of Lily Parr

Lily Parr, a Pioneering English Footballer, Scores Bronze Monument

Parr rose to fame in the years after WWI, a time when women’s soccer blossomed in the U.K.

American actor Doris Day with mutt co-star Hobo on the set of director Charles Walters's film, 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies'.

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Doris Day's Biggest Hit Is a Song She Could Have Done Without

"Que Sera, Sera" is synonomous with the actress and singer who died on Monday at age 97, though she was never a fan of the tune she called 'a kiddie song'

Illustration from woodblock-printed text on the life of Gautama Buddha

Library of Congress Digitizes Taiwanese Watercolors, Rare Chinese Texts

The library's rare Chinese book collection includes 5,300 titles, 2,000 of which will ultimately be included in the online portal

Left: Half-restored version of Vermeer's "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" / Right: Unrestored version

Cool Finds

Restoration Reveals Long-Lost Cupid Painted Over After Vermeer’s Death

In an unusual move, the Dresden gallery has opted to display the half-restored painting prior to concluding conservation efforts

Iris Scott, "Tiger Fire," 2019

Iris Scott, the World's First Professional Finger-Painter, Launches NYC Show

While the artist isn't the first to use finger painting in her work, she is the first to dedicate her career to the technique

Norma Miller photographed in 2015

Norma Miller, the ‘Queen of Swing,’ Has Died at 99

An electric performer of the Lindy Hop, Miller dazzled audiences on stage and screen

152 Nassau

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

The Site of Country Music's First Recorded Hit Is Set to Be Demolished

152 Nassau Street in Atlanta was home to the first country music recording hit made before the genre even had a name

The statue "Another time V," part of British sculptor Antony Gormley's exhibiton "Sight," is displayed on the Greek island of Delos, a UNESCO World Heritage protected ancient archaeological site.

The Ancient Greek Island of Delos Gets Its First Contemporary Art Installation

The esteemed British artist Antony Gormley has brought his signature “bodyforms” to the island

Max Peintner, "The Unbroken Attraction of Nature," 1970-71,  handcolored by Klaus Littmann in 2018

Art Meets Science

Curator Will Plant 299 Trees in a Stadium to Make Statement on Climate Change

After the installation closes, the makeshift forest will be relocated to a public space, where it will remain accessible as a 'living forest sculpture'

Celine Dion arrives for the 2019 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

How Well Did This Year's Met Gala Exemplify ‘Camp’?

The concept of camp goes far beyond what Susan Sontag wrote in her seminal essay

Participants use magnetic landscape tiles to build a perfect planet

This Board Game Asks Players to Craft a Perfect Planet

In 'Planet', players compete to create worlds capable of sustaining the highest possible level of biodiversity

Left: Albrecht Dürer, "St. Thomas," 1514 / Right: Johann Ladenspelder, "St. Thomas," circa 1535 – 1561

What Differentiates Renaissance Copies, Fakes and Reproductions?

An Austin exhbition argues that copies, despite the negative connotations associated with the word, are not inferior to so-called “originals”

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