Art History

The heist seemed like a mystery that would never be solved—until a deathbed confession by a career criminal led to the recovery of almost all of the missing timepieces.

The Time Thief Who Stole 106 Rare Clocks in a Daring Heist

Authorities eventually recovered 96 of the lost timepieces, including a $30 million watch commissioned for Marie Antoinette

Researchers think the artists may have been experimenting with how to depict movement.

Archaeologists Discover 1,400-Year-Old Murals of Two-Faced Men in Peru

The new finds are shedding light on the Moche people, who lived on Peru's northern coast

One of the 12 antiquities that U.S. authorities returned to Turkey last month

U.S. Returns $33 Million of Looted Antiquities to Turkey

The collection of 12 items included a headless bronze statue dating to 225 C.E.

Edgar Degas painted Édouard Manet and His Wife in the 1860s, but his friend was not a fan.

Manet and Degas Were Dear Friends—and Spirited Rivals

The complex relationship between the two French painters is the subject of a new exhibition in Paris

The analysis focused on 67 manillas from five shipwrecks off the coasts of Spain, Ghana, the United States and England. The largest study of manillas to date, the project aimed to use lead isotope analysis to pinpoint where the bracelets were produced. 

What Shipwrecks Reveal About the Origins of the Benin Bronzes

A new study traces the metal used to craft the brass sculptures to manilla bracelets produced in Germany and used as currency in the slave trade

Researchers think old masters like Sandro Botticelli, who painted Lamentation Over the Dead Christ, may have mixed egg into their oil paints to alter certain qualities.

Why Did Old Masters Use Eggs in Oil Paintings?

A new study explores how artists may have added yolk to alter the properties of their paints

York resident Luke Budworth has covered the 17th-century paintings with replicas in order to preserve the originals.

Kitchen Renovation Reveals 400-Year-Old Paintings in English Apartment

The two nine-foot paintings depict scenes from a 17th-century book of poetry

David Hockney's Dog Painting 19 (1995)

See How History's Great Artists Painted Their Dogs

A new exhibition showcases portraits of pets by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and David Hockney

Dancers in Ukrainian Dress by Edgar Degas

The Met Is the Latest Museum to Reclassify Russian Art as Ukrainian

Amid the Russian invasion, museums are grappling with how to identify artists connected to Ukraine

Picasso in Place Ravignan in Montmartre in 1904

Why French Authorities Placed a Young Pablo Picasso Under Surveillance

Police suspected the 19-year-old Spanish expatriate of harboring anarchist views

Still from "Masterpiece" featuring Coca-Cola's take on The Scream (1895)

Coca-Cola Uses Famous Paintings By Warhol, Munch and More to Sell Soda

The company's new ad campaign, "Masterpiece," brings iconic artworks to life

During World War II, Executive Order 9066 authorized the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans (above: In Los Angeles in April 1942, dozens of families wait for a train to Manzanar War Relocation Center in Owens Valley, California).

Japanese American Artists Recall the Trauma of Wartime Incarceration

Smithsonian podcasts explore the legacy of Executive Order 9066 and the camera that almost didn’t make it to the Juno spacecraft launch

Edward Brooke-Hitching's The Madman Gallery spotlights such artworks as John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame X, a statue of Glycon and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's Character Heads.

The Most Enigmatic Works in Art History

A new book highlights 100 artistic curiosities, from the nude "Mona Lisa" to portraits of a dog-headed saint

On the show, experts give contestants advice about Vermeer’s lost paintings.

Dutch Artists Compete to Paint Like Vermeer in New Reality Show

The contestants are tasked with recreating six of the old master's lost works

The hazy quality of works like Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed (1844) was influenced by air pollution, a new study says.

Did Air Pollution Influence Famous Impressionist Painters?

Artists like Turner and Monet painted the smog they saw in London and Paris, a new study says

Johannes Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis museum

Did Vermeer's 'Girl' Really Have a Pearl Earring?

A real pearl of that size would have been "astronomically expensive," art historian says

The Gordon Strong Automobile Objective at night

Hundreds of Frank Lloyd Wright's Designs Were Never Built. Here's What They Might Have Looked Like

So far, David Romero has digitally reconstructed more than 20 of the famous architect's unrealized projects

The middle section of Dance on the Beach (1906) by Edvard Munch

This 13-Foot-Long Munch Painting Was Hidden From the Nazis in a Norwegian Forest

"Dance on the Beach" will be going up for auction for the first time since the 1930s

Portrait of a Woman, painted by Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Battista Moroni, is joining the Frick’s permanent collection.

The Frick Adds Its First Renaissance Portrait of a Woman to Permanent Collection

The stunning 16th-century painting by Giovanni Battista Moroni is now on display

The Resurrected Christ Appears to His Mother by Peter Paul Rubens

Italian Police Seize Rubens Masterpiece From an Exhibition

Four people are under investigation for illegally exporting the painting and money laundering

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