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Sculpture

The Box Museum in England will open this May with an exhibit featuring 14 19th-century naval figureheads

Rescued From Rot, 19th-Century Naval Figureheads to Feature in New Exhibit

A collection of 14 restored wooden statues, including a two-ton William IV, will be shown at the Box Museum in England

The high-quality ice comes straight from a pond located just a stone’s throw away from Ice Art Park, just west of downtown Fairbanks, where the annual competition is held.

The Painstaking Art of Ice Carving

It might be cold and labor intensive, but that doesn’t stop artists from testing their ice sculpting skills at the World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks

The Moai sculptures on Rapa Nui are at risk of collapsing into the ocean as coastal erosion continues.

New Tool Tracks Climate Change’s Impact on World Heritage Sites

The online portal showcases the craggy cliffs surrounding Edinburgh Castle, Easter Island’s famed sculptures and other cultural heritage hotspots

Kryptos, displayed in a courtyard of the CIA’s Langley, Virginia, headquarters, has long puzzled codebreakers.

New Clue May Be the Key to Cracking CIA Sculpture’s Final Puzzling Passage

“Northeast” joins “Berlin” and “clock” as hints for deciphering a 97-character section of Kryptos’ code

A sculpture of two bulls, originally carved in the second century A.D., looted from Afghanistan's Kabul Museum almost 30 years ago

After 30 Years, Looted Kushan Bull Sculpture Will Return to Afghanistan’s Kabul Museum

The artifact is one of thousands left destroyed, damaged or missing after civil war broke out in the 1990s

Ninety-six sculptures from the Torlonia Collection will go on view in Rome later this year.

A Long-Hidden Collection of Ancient Sculpture Is Making Its Grand Debut

The statues are “surprising, rewarding and promising beyond belief,” says one expert of the private Torlonia Collection

The Pachacamac Idol, a 1200-year-old wooden carving that held spiritual significance to the Inca

This Inca Idol Survived the Spanish Conquest. 500 Years Later, Archaeologists Are Unveiling Its History

A new analysis suggests the Pachacamac Idol, once thought destroyed, is probably older—and less bloody—than once believed

Most of the newly discovered warriors were sculpted into one of two positions: either clutching pole weapons, with their right arms bent and fists partially clenched, or carrying bows, with their right arms hanging at ease.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Excavate 200 More Chinese Terracotta Warriors

The clay figures are part of the vast subterranean army built to protect the formidable emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife

The Elgin cast, seen on right, reveals sculptural details lost today.

New Research

3-D Imaging Reveals Toll of Parthenon Marbles’ Deterioration

A new study of 19th-century plaster casts of the controversial sculptures highlight details lost over the past 200 years

Students and teachers can download 3-D print-ready files of the Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops skulls.

Holiday Gift Guide

Ten Smithsonian Artifacts You Can 3-D Print

The list includes Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit, an Abraham Lincoln life mask and a coral skeleton

Michelangelo was dissatisfied with his work and actually attempted to destroy the sculpture.

Trending Today

Visitors Can Watch the Restoration of Michelangelo’s ‘Bandini Pietà’

The artist once took a sledgehammer to the sculpture, which is now housed at a museum in Florence

The scan captures every detail that made the bust so iconic, including Nefertiti’s delicate neck, painted headdress, high cheekbones and sharp eyeliner.

3-D Scans of the Bust of Nefertiti Are Now Available Online

A German museum released the digital data to artist Cosmo Wenman after a hoax heist and lengthy legal battle

A double ambrotype portrait of Albro Lyons, Sr. and Mary Joseph Lyons

NYC Monument Will Honor African-American Family Displaced to Make Way for Central Park

But the project has drawn criticism, particularly because the monument will stand some 20 blocks north of Seneca Village’s historic location

Detail of the Korean Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Gwaneum bosal) crafted in the Goryeo period, ca. 1220 to 1285.

Rare, Centuries-Old Korean Buddhist Masterpiece Goes on View

Sealed and hidden within the sculpture were sacred texts and symbolic objects

The Torch of Friendship is a 65-foot, 45-ton steel sculpture near San Antonio's River Walk.

San Antonio Displays More Than 100 Sculptures by Artist Sebastian

The city is celebrating the Mexican artist’s 50-plus year career with a massive exhibition

In an interview before the opening of his show, sculptor Lee Ufan (above: searching for materials on Long Island) says the significance for viewers is the "pure experience."

Lee Ufan’s Transformative Sculptures Are in Dialogue With the Spaces They Inhabit

For the first time in the Hirshhorn Museum’s history, the 4.3-acre outdoor gallery is devoted to a single artist

Andrea del Verrocchio, "Head of a Woman With Braided Hair," c. 1475-1478

The Man Who Mentored da Vinci Receives First U.S. Retrospective

National Gallery of Art spotlights Andrea del Verrocchio, a skilled sculptor and painter whose individual accomplishments have long been overlooked

The sculptor Edmonia Lewis (above: by Henry Rocher, c. 1870), “really broke through every obstacle," says the Smithsonian's Karen Lemmey.

Women Who Shaped History

Sculptor Edmonia Lewis Shattered Gender and Race Expectations in 19th-Century America

As the orphaned child of a black father and a Native-American mother, Lewis rewrote the 19th-century definition of sculptor

Researchers hypothesize that magnetic figures may have been crafted to memorialize the dead, with the attractive forces of the sculptures representing a lingering life force.

Mesoamerican Sculptures Reveal Early Knowledge of Magnetism

Stone figures with magnetized cheeks and navels suggest the pre-Maya civilization of Monte Alto understood the attractive force

Wait, isn’t the moon made of cheese though?

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

Apollo 11 Mission Memorialized With 2,200 Pounds of Butter

A buttery Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, along with a couple cows, are on display at the Ohio State Fair

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