Smart News Arts & Culture

These floral watercolors may have been painted by van Gogh's unrequited love interest, the 19-year-old daughter of his landlady

Cool Finds

Newly Discovered Papers Found in Vincent van Gogh's London Lodging

The cache includes insurance records signed by his landlady, a volume of prayers and hymns, and watercolors possibly painted by an unrequited love interest

Norman Wilfred Lewis, "Eye of the Storm (Seachange XV)," 1977

Art Meets Science

Study Finds Paintings Featuring Blue and Red Hues Sell for the Most Money at Auction

There's green to be found in shades of red and blue

Much of the discussion has centered on the soon-to-be-finished Humboldt Forum, scheduled to open later this year that will house a large collection of ethnological artifacts.

Ministers From All 16 German States Agree to Move Forward With Restitution of Looted Treasures

Officials said they would collaborate with museums on researching and repatriating artifacts that were unlawfully taken during Germany’s colonial era

Family photographs decorate the master bedroom in the home of Civil Rights leaders Medgar and Myrlie Evers.

American South

Home of Civil Rights Hero Medgar Evers Is Now a National Monument

Before his assassination in 1963, Evers led civil rights demonstrations and investigated racial violence in Mississippi

Carolee Schneemann, "Eye Body #11," 1963

Carolee Schneemann Pioneered the Way Women's Bodies Were Seen

The multidisciplinary artist, who died this month at 79, used her body as a canvas to produce works that celebrated female sexuality

Virginia Woolf (pictured above), Margaret Kennedy, Rebecca West, Stella Benson and Hilaire Belloc are amongst the writers who answered the survey

Literary Confessions Penned by Virginia Woolf, Margaret Kennedy Unearthed

10 prominent English writers answered a 39-question survey detailing their opinions of literary predecessors and peers

The 13 missing works are valued at more than $500 million.

Mobster Who May Be the Last Living Person With Knowledge of Gardner Museum Heist Set to Be Released From Prison

Octogenarian Robert Gentile has long maintained his innocence, but investigators believe otherwise

Trending Today

Amputee Marine Sets Record for Rowing Across the Atlantic Ocean From Europe to South America

Lee Spencer smashed the previous record by 36 days, rowing his boat solo and unsupported from Portugal to French Guiana in just 60 days

Ponden Hall near Haworth, West Yorkshire, England.

The House That May Have Inspired ‘Wuthering Heights’ Is Up for Sale

A chamber in Ponden Hall bears similarity to the room where the narrator Lockwood passes a fitful night of sleep—and dreams of an ‘ice-cold’ ghost

Cool Finds

Could This Work Be Leonardo da Vinci's Only Known Sculpture?

An art scholar argues "Virgin with the Laughing Child" held in a U.K. museum bears the hallmark smile and other techniques of the polymath's other works

Expansion packs featuring birds of every continent are currently in the works

This New Scientifically Accurate Board Game Is for the Birders

"Wingspan" features 170 unique species cards filled with real-world information, life-like illustrations

Georges Seurat's Pointillist "Study for 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte'" exhibits high levels of entropy but low levels of complexity

Art Meets Science

Physicists Come Up With Intriguing Way to Measure Art's Evolution

By mapping the complexity and entropy of 140,000 paintings created between 1031 and 2016, the researchers demonstrated the interaction of art movements

Underdrawing as seen under X-ray (left) and underdrawing superimposed with elements of 1619 portrait (right)

Cool Finds

X-Ray Analysis Reveals Self-Portrait Hidden Under Artemisia Gentileschi Painting

The underpainting closely mirrors an earlier self-portrait depicting the Baroque artist as Saint Catherine

Billie Holiday, performs on stage, 14 February 1954.

Four New Monuments to Historic Women Coming to N.Y.C.

The statues will honor Billie Holiday, Elizabeth Jennings Graham, Helen Rodríguez Trías and Katherine Walker

Mr. Greedy received a "readability" score of 4.4, while Of Mice and Men received a rating of 4.6

Study Suggests ‘Mr. Greedy’ Children’s Book Is Almost as Hard to Read as Steinbeck Classics

The analysis judged texts’ complexity based on sentence length, average word length, vocabulary level, but did not look at reading comprehension

"Monna Vanna," ca 1515. Found in the collection of the Condé Museum, Chantilly.

Cool Finds

Experts Think This 'Nude Mona Lisa' Could Have Been Drawn by Leonardo da Vinci

Previously attributed to his students, close examination of the charcoal drawing shows a left-handed artist created most of the artwork

Illustrated Police News periodical detailing the murders

New Book Chronicles the Lives of Jack the Ripper’s Victims

Contrary to popular belief, the five women were not all prostitutes, but rather individuals down on their luck

The rate was double what the team was expecting.

Nearly Half of Americans Have a Close Family Member Who Has Been Incarcerated

A new study highlights the sheer scope of mass incarceration in the United States

Dr. Seuss drawing at his desk

New Dr. Seuss Book, Which Teaches Kids to Love Art, Will Be Published This Fall

‘Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum' features an ‘affable horse’ who guides students through a museum of horse-themed artwork

The Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain is one of many museums featuring curvilinear edges

Art Meets Science

New Study Offers Clues to Dominance of Curve-Filled Museum Designs

Architects are more likely than non-experts to deem curvilinear spaces beautiful, but less likely to enter curved over straight-edged rooms

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