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Detail showing the hair of one of the figures around Christ in The Last Judgment, as example of the use of a multi-tipped brush

Michelangelo Used These Custom, Multi-Headed Brushes While Painting ‘The Last Judgment’ to Replicate His Intricate Sculpting Techniques

While restoring the Sistine Chapel, researchers discovered wavy groupings of brushstrokes which indicated that the artist used the special brushes to create a distinct crosshatching pattern

Gentile Bellini’s 1480 portrait of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II

Actually, You Can Go Back to Constantinople. A Landmark Exhibition Reconstructs the Imperial City With 1,600 Years of Treasures From Byzantine and Ottoman Times

“Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum tracks the storied city’s evolution from a 4th-century capital to a bustling 19th-century metropolis—hippodromes, bathhouses and all

A mummy known as El Niño (The Boy), a seven-year old Inca child found in 1999 on the top of the Llullaillaco volcano in the Argentine Andes.

New Research

Forensic Analysis of Frozen Inca Mummies Reveals That Sacrificed Children Were Plied With Coca Leaves, Corn Beer and Ayahuasca Compounds Before Death

Five centuries after children were sacrificed on volcanic peaks in the Andes, chemical clues preserved in their hair and fingernails show how the empire used intoxicating blends to soothe the children during their final months

The towering figure is surrounded by thousands of marigolds.

See the World’s Tallest Day of the Dead Skeleton, Made From Steel, Fiberglass, Papier-Mâché and 70,000 Marigolds

Standing a little more than 109 feet tall—roughly the height of an 11-story building—the colorful “La Catrina” figure in Mexico City broke the previous record of 92 feet set in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 2023

Renowned tattoo artist Henk Schiffmacher is once again leading the "Poor Man's Rembrandt Project," which enjoyed successs during its first iteration in 2023.

A ‘Poor Man’s Rembrandt’ for a Few Hundred Bucks? At Amsterdam’s Rembrandt House Museum, a Pop-Up Tattoo Studio Is Inking 17th-Century Masterpieces on Human Canvases

Visitors can choose from dozens of designs pulled from Rembrandt’s works, including lions, windmills and even his self-portraits. One participant was selected for a full-back tattoo of “The Descent from the Cross”

Andy Warhol poses with his beloved dachshund Archie in November 1973.

From Hunting Hounds to Modernist Muses, Dachshunds Have Done It All. See the World’s First Art Exhibition Dedicated Exclusively to the Sausage Dog

A new exhibition in Germany traces how the low-slung breed captured the imaginations of artistic heavyweights like Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and David Hockney. The museum even lets well-behaved pups tour the galleries

Researchers found the bone flute in an archaeological layer of Troy that dates to the eighth century B.C.E.

Cool Finds

Crafted From Bone, This 2,800-Year-Old Flute Unearthed in Troy May Have Been Played Around the Time That Homer Composed ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’

After more than 150 years of excavations, the object is the first musical instrument ever discovered in the ruins of the ancient city, which is located in modern-day Turkey

The first rooms of the "Art of Manga" exhibition introduce visitors to manga, which is read right-to-left and usually published in black and white.

Manga Are Black, White and Read All Over. Treasures of the Globally Popular Japanese Comic Book Medium Are on View in New York

The Brooklyn Museum’s “Art of Manga” exhibition highlights the “mangaka,” or creators, who have shaped the medium. Hundreds of original illustrations are making a rare trip to the United States

Pope John Paul II on board a Mercedes-Benz 230 G popemobile, 1980

From a Black Limo With a Silken Armchair to a Bulletproof ‘Sardine Can,’ the Vatican Looks Back at the Evolution of the Popemobile

A new exhibition at the Vatican Museums highlights a century of collaboration with Mercedes-Benz, showcasing eight papal vehicles that developed from a “means of transportation into an instrument of encounter,” per Pope Leo XIV

Known today as Gulliver's Travels, the book was originally published in 1726 under the title Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World by Lemuel Gulliver, a pseudonym for Jonathan Swift.

‘Gulliver’s Travels’ Turns 300 This Week. Jonathan Swift’s ‘Profound Satire of Human Nature’ Is Still Just as Bitingly Relevant

Since it was first published in October 1726, the novel purporting to tell the fantastical travel tales of Captain Lemuel Gulliver has never left print. An exhibition of rare editions and adaptations in Dublin celebrates Swift’s most famous work

The stuffed toys that inspired the world of Winnie-the-Pooh

As Winnie-the-Pooh Turns 100, the Original Stuffed Toy Remains in New York. Will the Silly Old Bear Ever Return to Britain?

A century after A.A. Milne first published his classic children’s tales, British admirers and royal emissaries have made a polite push to bring Christopher Robin’s original toys back home, if only for a royal vacation

The Star Chamber inside Bolsover Castle

‘Lie Down and Look Up’ at England’s Most Ornate Ceilings, From Sparkling Gold-Leaf Stars to Intricate Plaster Designs at Queen Victoria’s Seaside Retreat

A new campaign encourages visitors to take in the lavish art above their heads at five historic sites across England. There are even cushions for maximum comfort while you gaze

Researchers analyzed 79 fingerprints found on 36 warriors in Qin Shi Huang's Terra-cotta Army.

Did Women and Children Collaborate With Male Artisans to Create China’s Terra-Cotta Army? Fingerprints Left on the 2,000-Year-Old Clay Warriors May Hold the Answer

A new study found that adult women and juveniles under the age of 15 accounted for 67 percent of the fingerprints analyzed. The research challenges long-held assumptions about the age and gender of the workers who sculpted Qin Shi Huang’s soldiers

Das bunte Leben, 1907, by Wassily Kandinsky seen ahead of its auction at Christie's in London

Looted by Nazis and Recently Restituted, a Kaleidoscopic Kandinsky Painting Just Sold for Nearly $42 Million

“Das bunte Leben,” the Russian artist’s dreamlike panorama, bridges folklore and early modernism. The sale follows a 2023 ruling concluding that the work was seized from its rightful Dutch Jewish owners

A conservator examines an illustration hidden beneath a mural by Odilon Redon.

Cool Finds

Specialists Removed Three Thrilling, Century-Old Murals From the Walls of a French Monastery. Beneath, They Made ‘a Discovery for the History of Art’

Hidden under multi-paneled Symbolist murals by French artist Odilon Redon were sketches that he had drawn directly on the walls of the 11th-century Abbaye de Fontfroide

The memorial features a 125-foot bas-relief created by sculptor Emily Bedard that moves chronologically from the buildup of the operation to the conflict and liberation.

See the Sweeping Dune Walls and 125-Foot Bas-Relief Sculpture at the National Mall’s Newest Memorial, Dedicated to Veterans of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm

The Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial is an oasis-like place for honoring the Americans who served and lost their lives in combat to liberate Kuwait in the early 1990s

The Milwaukee Brewers are playing the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2026 World Series.

Art Museums in Milwaukee and Tampa Bay Are Betting That Their Hometown Baseball Teams Will Win the World Series. The Wager? Monet Paintings

As the Brewers take on the Rays in the Fall Classic, two art museums are engaged in a friendly bit of sports betting: The winning city (temporarily) gets a Monet from the other city’s collection

Monet is believed to have painted Iris in 1924 or 1925, shortly before his death in 1926.

This Massive, ‘Mega-Rare’ Monet Painting Is Now the Most Expensive Artwork Ever Sold at Auction in France

The Impressionist painted “Iris” a year or two before his death, at a time when his work was becoming increasingly abstract and falling out of favor with critics. Now, it’s considered a masterpiece ahead of its time

The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

New Research

A Team of Astronomers Thinks They Have Identified the Exact Night Sky That Inspired Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night.’ Not Everyone Is Convinced

Very few night skies seen from the south of France during the summer of 1889 would match the scene on van Gogh’s canvas. A new study argues that it could have been July 22

The planetarium is in Florida Southern College's Polk County Science Building.

Immerse Yourself in the Cosmos at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Planetarium, Recently Restored to Its Former Glory in Florida

Completed in 1958, the domed building is located on the campus of Florida Southern College, home to 13 Wright-designed buildings, the world’s largest single-site collection of the architect’s work

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