Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Art History

The winner (and one guest) will be invited to attend the Mona Lisa's annual inspection—one of the few times the work emerges from behind bullet-proof glass.

How You Could Be One of the Only People in the Room With the ‘Mona Lisa’

A Christie’s auction benefitting the Louvre offers a winning bidder the chance to attend the painting’s annual inspection

Ancient artists created the works between 12,600 and 11,800 years ago.

Cool Finds

Tens of Thousands of 12,000-Year-Old Rock Paintings Found in Colombia

The images—heralded by researchers as “the Sistine Chapel of the ancients”—depict animals, humans and geometric patterns

Kazumasa Ogawa, Chrysanthemum from Some Japanese Flowers. ca. 1894

Art Meets Science

How Has Photography’s Relationship With Nature Evolved Over the Past 200 Years?

A new exhibition at London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery features more than 100 works documenting the natural world

Researchers analyze the microbiome of Leonardo's Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk (circa 1490). Housed at the Royal Library of Turin, the detailed sketch is considered by some scholars to be a self-portrait.

Art Meets Science

Hidden Microbes and Fungi Found on the Surface of Leonardo da Vinci Drawings

Researchers used new DNA sequencing technology to examine the “bio-archives” of seven of the Renaissance master’s sketches

The cold and isolation of the Svalbard archipelago helps preserve the Arctic World Archive's contents.

Norway Preserves ‘The Scream’ for Future Generations by Burying Digital Copy in Arctic Coal Mine

The Munch masterpiece joins digitized art and artifacts from more than 15 countries in the “futureproof” Arctic World Archive

The Deserted Cottage (circa 1797) is the original drawing for Constable's only surviving etching from the period.

Cool Finds

Early John Constable Sketches Spent 200 Years Forgotten in a Family Scrapbook

The four watercolor drawings and pencil portraits will be featured in an upcoming Sotheby’s sale

Local officials approved plans to install the statue on St. Peter's Hill in Grantham.

Why a Planned Statue of Britain’s ‘Iron Lady,’ Margaret Thatcher, Is So Polarizing

Set to be installed in the prime minister’s hometown of Grantham next year, the ten-foot-tall work has both supporters and detractors

Student researchers analyzed this leaf from a Book of Hours (left), a devotional Christian manuscript that dates to the 15th century. The students found traces of French cursive writing beneath the visible text (right). The cursive was likely scraped away to make the parchment reusable for the illuminated Gothic script.

Cool Finds

College Sophomores Discover Hidden Text in Medieval Manuscript

Students at Rochester Institute of Technology used a self-developed UV imaging system to assess a 15th-century religious document

Local residents walk through the damaged Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, or Holy Savior Cathedral, in Shushi. Azerbaijani forces targeted the cathedra during a six-week offensive designed to regain control of the region.

Why Scholars, Cultural Institutions Are Calling to Protect Armenian Heritage

After six weeks of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia agreed to cede control of territories in the contested region to Azerbaijan

McCubbin's Found spent 115 years hidden beneath the surface of The Pioneer, a 1904 painting widely heralded as one of Australia's greatest masterpieces.

Cool Finds

Missing Australian Masterpiece Spent 115 Years Hiding in Plain Sight

Impressionist Frederick McCubbin painted “The Pioneer” (1904) over an earlier work titled “Found”

An Italian art historian posits that the red chalk drawing of Jesus is a study for Leonardo's Salvator Mundi.

Art Historian Claims a Newly Discovered Drawing Is the Work of Leonardo da Vinci

Much like “Salvator Mundi,” the proposed da Vinci sketch is likely to attract intense scrutiny

The online exhibition "Missing Masterpieces" highlights 12 works of art that have been stolen or gone missing over the years. Pictured here: Vincent van Gogh's The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884), which was stolen from a museum in the Netherlands in March at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Virtual Travel

Virtual Museum of Lost Art Asks Visitors to Help Track Down Missing Masterpieces

A new online exhibition revisits the fate of stolen or vanished paintings by the likes of van Gogh, Monet and Cézanne

Routine sewage work in Athens unearthed a bust of Hermes, the Greek god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves and travel.

Cool Finds

Ancient Bust of Greek God Hermes Found During Work on Athens’ Sewage System

The well-preserved sculpture, which dates to around 300 B.C., was once used as a street marker

Artist's rendering of the Edo Museum of West African Art's exterior

A New Museum of West African Art Will Incorporate the Ruins of Benin City

Designed by architect David Adjaye, the museum will reunite looted artifacts currently housed in Western institutions

A police barrier tape hangs in front of Dresden's Royal Palace, which houses the Green Vault.

Authorities Arrest Three Suspects in $1 Billion Dresden Jewel Heist

Investigators linked the November 2019 burglary to an organized crime syndicate

A carving on the wall of Florence's Palazzo Vecchio may be the work of Michelangelo.

Did Michelangelo Carve a Graffiti Portrait Into This Florentine Facade?

New research highlights similarities between an etching on the Palazzo Vecchio and a sketch attributed to the Renaissance artist

Installation view of "Objects of Desire," which features such Surrealist creations as a stool topped with a bicycle wheel

Step Into a Surrealist World Populated by Horse-Shaped Lamps and Bicycle Tables

An exhibition in Madrid traces the enduring connection between Surrealism and design

The original sculpture (left) and the "restored" version (right)

Botched Art Restoration in Spain Renders Smiling Statue Unrecognizable

A disfigured carving in Palencia is the latest in a growing list of bungled conservation attempts by amateurs

The statue's base is engraved with a quote from Wollstonecraft: “I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves.”

Nude Statue Honoring ‘Mother of Feminism’ Mary Wollstonecraft Sparks Controversy

The artist says the sculpture depicts an everywoman, reflecting the 18th-century philosopher’s continuing relevance today

The Sistine Hall, originally constructed as part of the Vatican Library

Vatican Library Enlists Artificial Intelligence to Protect Its Digitized Treasures

The archive employs A.I. modeled on the human immune system to guard offerings including a rare manuscript of the “Aeneid”

Page 32 of 52