Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Arts

Pablo Picasso created Torero in 1949.

Cool Finds

A Landlord Found a Peculiar Print Hanging in a Vacant Apartment. It Turned Out to Be an Original Picasso That Had Been Missing for Eight Years

When “Torero” vanished from a Milwaukee art gallery in 2018, the owners didn’t know whether they’d ever see it again. The man who found the etching turned it over to the police earlier this month

Baptistery of Saint Louis basin, engraved and inlaid copper alloy, silver, gold and black compound, Egypt or Syria, Mamluk dynasty, c. 1325-1340

For the First Time, a Selection of Islamic Masterpieces From the Louvre Is Coming to the United States. See the Treasures Soon to Be Displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

Twenty-six works spanning many centuries and regions will form the September exhibition titled “From the Louvre: Masterpieces of Islamic Art”

Dolly Parton in 1978

Dolly Parton Was One of the Biggest Stars in the History of Country Music. She Wanted to Be Remembered as a Songwriter

After growing up in poverty, she became famous for her legendary songs, big heart and larger-than-life style. But the iconic musician insisted that “the songs lead to everything else”

The statue was unvelied on August 14.

A New Statue Honors ‘Moby-Dick’ Author Herman Melville in the Massachusetts City Where His Whaling Adventures Began

The 7.5-foot-tall bronze artwork stands in the heart of historic New Bedford, the 19th-century whaling port that inspired the author’s famous 1851 novel

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Bishop Odo rallying William's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066

How Should the Bayeux Tapestry End? A New Competition Invites Children to Reimagine Its Missing Final Panel

Some historians think the 230-foot-long artwork is missing its final panel, which may have once depicted William the Conqueror’s coronation. As the tapestry goes on view in London, students will be drafting endings of their own

Italian officials pose with the three recovered artworks: Paul Cézanne’s Still Life With Cherries, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Les Poissons and Henri Matisse’s Odalisque on the Terrace.

Stolen Masterpieces Worth $10 Million Discovered in a Cardboard Box, Months After Thieves Snuck Into a Museum and Whisked Them Away Into the Night

The artworks by Cézanne, Renoir and Matisse disappeared in a three-minute heist earlier this year. Now, police have arrested five suspects in connection with the burglary in northern Italy

"Kiama Library" is stamped on the book's title page.

Cool Finds

This Library Book Was 150 Years Overdue. Fortunately for the Man Who Just Returned It, Librarians Won’t Be Enforcing a $20,000 Late Fee

“The Antiquities of Athens” had likely been missing from an Australian library since the 1870s. Staffers say its recovery is “an unlikely story of survival (of the book) and redemption (of the borrower)”

Way Bandy touches up Crystal Gayle's makeup on location for "The Crystal Gayle Special," September 1, 1979.

Way Bandy Was One of the Most Influential Makeup Artists in the World. He Challenged Stigmas in the 1980s by Making Sure His Death From AIDS Was Widely Known

He instructed the executors of his will to make his specific cause of death from the disease public during a time when many others feared doing so

The famed circular staircase at the Vatican Museums

Following Pope Leo XIV’s Encyclical, the Vatican Announces a New Art Triennial Celebrating Human Creativity and Empathy in the Age of A.I.

More than 100 artists will showcase their art on four continents as the Catholic Church continues to emphasize human creativity and relationships over artificial intelligence tools

Nick Cave in his studio with objects featured in the "Mammoth" exhibition

How Artist Nick Cave Memorializes His Ancestors Through ‘Mammoth’ Work

An exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum spotlights how everyday objects can serve as the foundation for artistic expression

Students and volunteers have been excavating the Roman mosaic from a field near near Halberton, Devon.

Cool Finds

A Metal Detectorist Discovered Tiny Tiles in a Farmer’s Field. A Spectacular Ancient Roman Mosaic Was Buried Beneath the Surface

The polychrome mosaic once decorated a small room in a lavish villa complex. Researchers, students and volunteers have been working together to excavate the rare site in southwestern England

La Lampe philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp), René Magritte, 1936

Wacky, Mysterious Paintings by This Surrealist Still Influence Contemporary Artists. An Exhibition in London Will Explore the Legacy of René Magritte

The Belgian Surrealist was famous for his playful subversion, like when he created a painting of a pipe and then defiantly declared it wasn’t a pipe, after all

Odysseus and Polyphemus, Arnold Böcklin, 1896

Was There Ever an Original Version of ‘The Odyssey,’ and Do We Need to Worry About What Homer Would Think?

The earliest surviving fragments of the epic poem—the subject of Christopher Nolan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster—date back more than 2,000 years. But oral storytelling about a hero named Odysseus is much older

Bernardo de Gálvez by José Nicolás de la Escalera on display in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition “Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900.”

This Spanish Officer Besieged the British During the American Revolution, Giving George Washington Time to Plan a Pivotal Attack

Bernardo de Gálvez indirectly contributed to the Continental Army’s victory at the 1781 Siege of Yorktown. A rare painting of him is now on view at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

A Rothko painting beside a mural by Fra Angelico at the Museum of San Marco

Puzzled by Mark Rothko’s Captivating Color Field Paintings? Look to the Renaissance Masters Who Inspired Him

During trips to Europe, the American painter developed a fascination with how 15th- and 16th-century artists and architects had designed their work to evoke specific feelings

Detail of Rembrandt's Let the Little Children Come Unto Me

Rembrandt Began a Biblical Painting. Another Artist Finished It ‘Rather Crudely.’ Now, Restorations Have Revealed the Long-Lost Original

An art dealer stumbled across “Let the Little Children Come Unto Me” at a German auction house in 2014. Experts have now carefully removed layers of overpaint from the forgotten masterpiece

The Mozart notebook was found in a stack of roughly 20 manuscripts at the National Library of France.

Cool Finds

Why Did the Handwriting in This 248-Year-Old Notebook Look Familiar? It Turned Out to Be a Forgotten Mozart Manuscript

While working as a tutor in 1778, the composer created seven short pieces for flute and harp with his student’s help. This month, audiences heard the works performed for the very first time

In 1847, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey were published together in three volumes.

The First Edition of Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ Contained Incorrect Page Numbers, Missing Punctuation and Three Misspellings of the Word ‘Heights’

The haunting story set against the Yorkshire moors would become one of the most renowned novels of the 19th century. Now, a rare first-edition copy is heading to auction

None

Smithsonian Magazine Presents: America at 250—The Revolutionary Spark

Celebrating the visionary insights & darling innovators that forged a nation.

Liberty, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, painted terra cotta and tin, ca. 1884

This Remarkable Statue of Liberty Model Made by the Sculptor of the Original Has a New Summer Home at the Smithsonian Castle

Artist Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s small maquette represents the big ideals of the iconic national monument in New York Harbor

Page 1 of 67