Art

A fresco stolen from an archaeological site at Herculaneum, an ancient town near Pompeii that was buried by Mount Vesuvius' eruption

Italy Celebrates Return of Looted Artifacts Worth $20 Million

Some of the five dozen items had been on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Onlookers attending the touring exhibition Save Ukr(AI)ne, which featured A.I.-generated images based on stories of children displaced by the war in Ukraine, in September 2022

Art Meets Science

Are A.I. Image Generators Violating Copyright Laws?

Two new lawsuits argue that tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are infringing on artists' rights

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

The installation Create to Free Yourselves: Abraham Lincoln and the History of Freeing Slaves in America by Georges Adéagbo (above) will be on view at President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, D.C. through February 15. ​​

At Abraham Lincoln's Cottage, Artist Georges Adéagbo Pays Homage to the Great Emancipator

The award-winning Beninese artist unveils a work dedicated to the president’s “generosity of heart”

A snowshoe hare in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado

See 25 Stunning Images From the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest

Vote for your favorite among these photos shortlisted in the People's Choice category until February 2

The stunning Sydney Modern Project is the modern leg of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia.

The Most Anticipated Museum Openings of 2023

Scheduled to launch this year are new institutions dedicated to punk rock, Amelia Earhart and robots

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

At the Natural History Museum, "Cellphone: Unseen Connections" opens June 23; at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, "Give Me a Sign: The Language of Symbols" goes on view May 13; and "Ay-Ō's Happy Rainbow Hell" is part of the National Museum of Asian Art's centennial exhibitions, opening March 25.

Twenty-Three Smithsonian Shows to See in 2023

A rare Bible, George Clinton's colorful wig, Disney World history and Japanese ghosts debut this year

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

A painting at Brazil's National Congress that was damaged during the attacks

Rioters Damage Art at Government Buildings in Brazil

The government has released a list of artworks that were harmed during the attacks

Police in Boulder and Lakewood found all five pieces of stolen artwork in a hotel room.

Police Recover $400,000 Worth of Stolen Artwork in Colorado

The suspect allegedly broke into a locked truck that was transporting five high-end pieces across the country

Some romance and fiction audiobooks are now narrated by A.I. voices named Madison and Jackson.

Art Meets Science

You Can Listen to Audiobooks Narrated by Artificial Intelligence

Apple is now offering "digital narration" for some titles in the romance and fiction genres

Philip Pearlstein (above in his studio, June 1971) was "unwaveringly interested in the landscape of the body,” says Stephanie Stebich, the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

Philip Pearlstein Painted the Naked Truth

Smithsonian curators remember the celebrated artist, who died last month at 98, and who viewed humanity with biting realism

A cave painting of an extinct cattle species from Lascaux, France, with markings on its back.

Could These Cave Markings Be the Earliest Form of Writing?

New research proposes that symbols in 20,000-year-old cave drawings are a proto-writing system, but not all scientists are convinced

A poster, boldly declaring "Sí Se Puede. It Can Be Done" and held in the Smithsonian collections, offers a look back to how farm laborers won the right to join and form unions.

Why ‘Sí, Se Puede’ Was the Winning Motto for the United Farm Workers

Their nationwide boycott helped farmworkers win the right to join and form unions

The Collaboration, which stars Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope, makes its Broadway debut.

'The Collaboration' Brings Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat to Broadway

Starring Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope, the production explores two art icons' complex relationship

Our ten-most read stories of the year featured the all-woman army of the African kingdom of Dahomey, mischievous felines, J.R.R. Tolkien and more.

Our Top Ten Stories of 2022

From a teen inventor to invasive fish to lost cities of the Amazon, these were our most-read articles of the year

Fascinating finds unveiled in 2022 ranged from a 2,000-year-old statue of a dog to colorful sarcophagi at Saqqara to a Qing dynasty vase.

Cool Finds

Ninety-Six Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2022

The year's most exciting discoveries included hidden portraits by Cézanne and van Gogh, sarcophagi buried beneath Notre-Dame, and a medieval wedding ring

Vandals broke in to Koonalda Cave in South Australia and wrote a prank message over 30,000 year old art

Vandals Destroy 30,000-Year-Old Indigenous Cave Drawings in Australia

The perpetrators broke in to the cave and defaced some of the earliest known examples of First Peoples Rock Art

Pure Structural Color is made of several extremely thin sheets of non-conductive material. These layers are stacked together and imprinted, or stamped, with a nano-scale pattern of rods with curved ends. This pattern scatters light into colors that are visible from all directions, and different hues can be produced by changing the dimensions of the pattern.

Art Meets Science

This British Zoologist Wants to Reinvent Color

Andrew Parker has produced some of the brightest hues in the world. So, what’s his secret?

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