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The vase dates to the Maya Classic period, which lasted from around 250 to 900 C.E.

Cool Finds

A Woman Thrifted This Ancient Maya Vase for $3.99—and Then Gave It Back to Mexico

Anna Lee Dozier started to wonder about the object’s origins when she realized it resembled artifacts in a Mexican museum

The First Knot (with heart-shaped shield), Albrecht Dürer, woodcut, 1506-1507.

The Knotty Art of Printmaking

The ornate series of woodcuts that transformed an art form

The slippers were on loan at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when they were stolen in 2005.

The Judy Garland Museum Wants to Buy Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers

Officials hope to raise millions to bid on the shoes, which were missing for over a decade, at auction in December

Born in 1881 in Spain, Pablo Picasso spent most of his life in Paris, where he helped develop Cubism with French painter Georges Braque.

You Can Now See Thousands of Pablo Picasso’s Works in a New Online Archive

The Picasso Museum in Paris has released a digital portal featuring the Spanish painter and sculptor’s art

St. Gregory of Nazianzus is finally heading home to Germany.

This Rubens Painting Vanished During World War II. Now, It’s Returning Home to a Castle in Germany

“St. Gregory of Nazianzus,” once part of the Baroque palace’s collection, was stolen and sold at the end of the war

The Judgement of Paris, Peter Paul Rubens, circa 1632–35

Cool Finds

This Rubens Masterpiece Was Significantly Altered by Another Artist

Important details in “The Judgement of Paris” appear to have been changed several decades after the artist’s death

The badges identify the wearer's occupation, such as servant or porter. 

These Badges Shed New Light on the Enslaved Workers Who Built Charleston

The Smithsonian has acquired a collection of 146 slave badges from between 1800 and 1865

The artworks are the only pendant marital portraits of an Amsterdam couple that Hals ever created.

These Dutch Newlyweds Had Their Portraits Painted Nearly 400 Years Ago. But Who Were They?

A curator has finally figured out the identity of the couple painted by Frans Hals around 1637

Aspen, Colorado gets around 300 days of sunshine per year.

The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2024

From a bluegrass capital in Virginia to a laid-back surf town in Hawaii, these spots are beckoning to tourists this year

Food, Fruit and Glass on a Table, Peter Binoit, circa 1620s

Two Nazi-Looted Paintings Were Returned to a Jewish Family, Who Donated Them Back to the Louvre

The 17th-century artworks were recovered from Germany and placed at the Paris museum in the 1950s

Poppy Field, Claude Monet, 1873

Climate Activist Vandalizes a Monet With an Apocalyptic Image

A protester was arrested on Saturday after plastering a poster over “Poppy Field” at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris

A blue-eyed cicada that's on exhibit at the Field Musum in Chicago. Four-year-old Jack Bailey found the bug in his yard, and his family donated it to the museum.

People Are Spotting Rare, Blue-Eyed Cicadas Around Illinois

As two broods of periodical cicadas emerge across the U.S. this spring, people have discovered a few of the bugs that don’t have their trademark red eyes

The tiles were likely made in the Netherlands in the late 17th century.

This Polish Museum Received a Mysterious Package in the Mail—With Missing 17th-Century Tiles Inside

The ceramic tiles, which vanished during World War II, once adorned a Baroque bathing pavilion in Warsaw

The exhibition includes portraits of staff by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

The British Royals’ Huge Staff Once Included Exotic Cat Wranglers, Rat Killers and Toilet Attendants

A new exhibition in London offers an inside look at the lives of the workers who served the monarchy between 1660 and 1830

The title page of one of the Folger’s First Folios.

How the Soon-to-Reopen Folger Shakespeare Library Came to Be

A full 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio will go on view as the renovated Washington, D.C. institution makes its debut

A pterosaur cranium fossil is among the donated artifacts that will be on display and studied behind the scenes when the museum reopens in 2026.

More Than 1,000 Fossils, Including Rare Dinosaurs, Gifted to Brazil’s National Museum Following Fire

The massive donation was made by Burkhard Pohl, a Swiss-German collector, as the museum works to replenish its collections after a devastating blaze in September 2018

Portrait of Adèle Papin Playing the Harp, oil on canvas, c. 1799. The 17-year-old sitter, the famously beautiful daughter of a prominent family, was later rumored to be Napoleon's mistress. 

How This Caribbean-Born Artist Became the Toast of 18th-Century France

A new exhibition in Massachusetts illuminates the success of Guillaume Lethière

Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, 85, cracked the glass protecting the Magna Carta on the morning of May 10.

Climate Activists Chip the Case Protecting the Magna Carta

The two protesters, who are both in their 80s, held up a sign that read, “The government is breaking the law”

Guests will get to stay inside the Musée d'Orsay's clock room on the night of July 26.

The Paris Olympics

Spend the Night in the Musée d’Orsay’s Clock Room on the Evening of the Olympics Opening Ceremony

Airbnb will allow two travelers to book a one-night stay in the storied Paris museum, where they will watch the ceremony from a balcony overlooking the Seine

The London National Gallery will celebrate its 200th birthday on May 10, 2024.

Northern Europe and the British Isles

At 200 Years Old, the London National Gallery Is Redefining What It Means to Be a ‘National’ Museum

Despite its decidedly traditional art collection, the British cultural institution is adopting a contemporary approach to public outreach and accessibility

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