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Joplin, Missouri, located along historic Route 66, is hosting the World Street Painting festival. This artwork is from a 2025 festival.

Asphalt Is the Canvas for This Year’s World Street Painting Festival in Joplin, Missouri, Which Honors 100 Years of Route 66

Immersive paintings, which function as massive optical illusions, pay tribute to the “Mother Road” and its influence on American culture

The entrance gate to the Jewish cemetery on St. Eustatius

America's 250th Anniversary

This Jewish Community in the Caribbean Smuggled Gunpowder to the Patriots During the Revolution. A British Admiral Condemned the Island as a ‘Nest of Vipers’

A new exhibition at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, in Philadelphia, spotlights the little-known wartime contributions of the Jews of St. Eustatius

Fish swim around the Antilla shipwreck.

The ‘Antilla’ Shipwreck Tells the Story of When World War II Came to Aruba

Tourists can learn about this history by snorkeling over the wreck of the German ship in shallow waters just off the island’s coast

The recovered helmet and two bracelets were displayed at a press conference by Dutch officials on April 2, 2026.

Thieves Who Allegedly Stole an Ancient Gold Helmet Belonging to a Lost European Culture Just Returned It

More than a year after the Romanian treasure disappeared from a museum in the Netherlands, it’s back in the hands of authorities. The men accused of stealing it will face trial later this month

Gansevoort Street, Willem de Kooning, circa 1949

Willem de Kooning Didn’t Get His Big Break Until His 40s. See the Stunning Abstract Paintings That First Captivated Audiences

Artworks that showcase the painter’s early foray into Abstract Expressionism are now on view at the Princeton University Art Museum

A 1931 statue of the d'Artagnan in southwestern France

Cool Finds

Does This Skeleton Found Beneath a Dutch Church Belong to D’Artagnan, the Man Who Inspired ‘The Three Musketeers’?

Workers discovered the skeleton during recent repair work at the church in Maastricht. D’Artagnan died during the siege of the city in 1673

Swimmable Cities is a global alliance of local government officials, experts and advocates working to make urban waterways clean enough to swim in.

Would You Jump Into Your Local River? Swimmable Cities May Be Within Reach as Once-Polluted Waterways Are Restored

Efforts to improve the “swimmability” of urban areas are gaining global traction, from Paris to Chicago

Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633

Cool Finds

They Joked About Discovering a Forgotten Masterpiece. Now, Experts Say They’re the Unwitting Owners of an Original Rembrandt

“Vision of Zacharias in the Temple” had been removed from the Dutch painter’s oeuvre in the 1960s. But when the owners brought it to the Rijksmuseum, scholars decided to conduct a close analysis

This photo from the early 1900s depicts a man carrying a giant head in a wheelbarrow.

We’ve Been Manipulating Images Since the Invention of Photography—Long Before Photoshop or Artificial Intelligence

Dating to between 1860 and 1940, more than 50 photographs depicting the impossible are on view in a new exhibition at the Rijksmuseum

The timbers and hull planks emerged on a beach in Studland Bay after Storm Chandra.

Shipwreck Timbers Appeared on a Beach After a Storm. They Had Been Buried Beneath the Sand Since the 17th Century

Experts think the newly unearthed timbers may have come from the “Fame,” an armed Dutch merchant vessel that sank off the Dorset coast in 1631

The Roman stone pictured with pieces that were not found with the artifact.

New Research

This Ancient Roman Game Board Was a Mystery. Researchers Used A.I. to Figure Out How to Play

The limestone oval is carved with a dark, thin rectangle on which ancient people repeatedly moved game pieces

Self-Portrait in a Fur Cap, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1630

Cool Finds

A Woman Found a Folder in a Drawer. When She Opened It, She Discovered 35 Forgotten Rembrandt Etchings

Charlotte Meyer’s grandfather acquired the artworks between 1900 and 1920. Now, they’re going on view for the first time in more than a century

Three large screens in the Rijksmuseum's "Metamorphoses" exhibition depict artist Juul Kraijer as Medusa.

See How Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ Inspired Centuries of Artists—From Caravaggio to René Magritte

A show at the Rijksmuseum brings together paintings, sculptures, film and other artworks that reinterpret the ancient Roman poet’s tales of transformation

Vincent van Gogh's Wheatfield With a Reaper (1889) is one of more than 50 artworks and objects on view in an exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Vincent van Gogh Adored the Color Yellow. A New Exhibition in Amsterdam Wants You to Fall In Love With the Hue, Too

The Dutch artist’s paintings showcase plants, landscapes, objects and buildings in bold shades of yellow

Pastis is an anise-flavored aperitif that was invented in 1932 in Marseille, France.

Coastal Cities of Europe

Get a Taste of Coastal Europe Through These Seven Spirits

From aquavit to pastis, these libations have notes of flavor and history

The timbers on display in 1954

New Research

Archaeologists Are Finally Unraveling the Secrets of the Shipwreck Discovered 20 Feet Below the Streets of Manhattan

Researchers are opening a new investigation into the timbers, which may have once belonged to the “Tyger,” a Dutch trading vessel that sank in 1613

A juvenile harbor seal lies on a beach in the Netherlands.

Seals Are Seemingly Vanishing Off the Dutch Coast. These Scientists Are Trying to Get to the Bottom of the Mysterious Disappearances

Recent counts of the Wadden Sea’s adult harbor seal population have revealed a surprising trend of decline, prompting a consortium of researchers to investigate whether the animals are dying off, relocating or experiencing something else altogether

A rendering of the planned Rijksmuseum sculpture garden

A Sprawling Sculpture Garden Featuring Modern Masterpieces Is Coming to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

The new space will feature artworks by the likes of Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois and Alexander Calder. Officials say it will be free for anyone to visit

Divers swept away sand and silt to reveal the wreck.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Say They’ve Unearthed a Massive Medieval Cargo Ship That’s the Largest Vessel of Its Kind Ever Found

Spotted off the coast of Denmark, the “Svaelget 2” is a cog, a kind of large trading vessel used in the Middle Ages. Experts say the 600-year-old discovery is “exceptionally well-preserved”

The Polar Bear Swim in Vancouver in 1978. Lisa Pantages, second from the left, will complete her 64th annual plunge this New Year’s.

‘Excitement With a Little Dash of Fear’: Polar Plunges Ring in the New Year With a Splash. But What Actually Happens to Your Body?

Three experts share the science behind taking a dip in cold water—and offer safety tips that any potential plungers should bear in mind

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