Smart News Arts & Culture

Members of the Little Rock Nine study together after being blocked from Little Rock Central High in 1957.

Little Rock Nine and Paul McCartney React to Beyoncé's 'Blackbird' Cover

McCartney was inspired to write the song after hearing about the battle to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957

Readers were first introduced to Superman in June 1938.

The First Issue of Superman Just Became the Most Valuable Comic Book in the World

An original copy of 1938's "Action Comics No. 1" sold for a record-breaking $6 million at auction

Fernando Sánchez Castillo's reimagining of Velázquez's Expulsion of the Moriscos

Art Meets Science

This Artist Used A.I. to Recreate a Velázquez Painting Lost in a Fire 300 Years Ago

Fernando Sánchez Castillo employed historical resources and image-generation technologies to reimagine "Expulsion of the Moriscos"

The handwritten manuscript of The Sign of the Four, Arthur Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes novel

Arthur Conan Doyle Agreed to Write 'The Sign of the Four' at a Fateful Dinner in 1889

The handwritten manuscript he produced is going to auction, where it could become the most expensive item associated with the mystery writer ever sold

Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir topped the list, followed by George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue.

These Were the Most Challenged Books in America Last Year

Titles with LGBTQ themes dominated the American Library Association's newly released list

A poster for Oppenheimer in Tokyo

'Oppenheimer' Opens in Japan Eight Months After Worldwide Release

The acclaimed biopic of the Manhattan Project's leader has been met with mixed reviews by Japanese audiences

The symmetrical rock was found near Still Bay, a town located about 200 miles east of Cape Town.

New Research

Is This Stingray-Shaped Rock the Oldest Known Animal Art?

While they urge caution, researchers think an artist may have traced a stingray in the sand some 130,000 years ago

Reconstruction illustrating sliding cover as it opens, featuring Lorenzo Lotto's Portrait of Giovanna de' Rossi (left) and Portrait Cover With an Allegory of Chastity (right), circa 1505

Why Were So Many Renaissance Portraits Multisided?

A new exhibition at the Met is the first to examine the tradition of covered 15th- and 16th-century portraits, which were designed to be interactive and often portable

Comedian George Carlin, who died in 2008, performing a standup routine in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1992

George Carlin A.I. Imitation Case Reaches Settlement

The late comedian's estate brought a lawsuit against two podcast hosts who used an A.I. voice generator to deliver a fake stand-up routine

Moulin de Limetz, Claude Monet, 1888

Claude Monet's 'Moulin de Limetz' Could Fetch $25 Million at Auction

The 1888 work depicts a grain mill on the River Epte near the artist's home in Giverny, France

The solar eclipse’s path of totality stretches across North America in a roughly 115-mile-long band, from Mexico to Canada.

Listen Live to the Total Solar Eclipse, Transformed Into a Real-Time Musical Composition

A composer based at San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum will use data coming from the eclipsed sun to create an out-of-this-world “sonification” on April 8

A version of Andy Warhol's Mao that's similar to the print owned by Orange Coast College

Andy Warhol 'Mao' Print Vanishes From a California College's Vault

The 1972 artwork, which the school had never publicly displayed, is worth an estimated $50,000

Untitled (1984), a collaborative painting by Basquiat and Warhol, is almost 10 feet tall and 13 feet wide.

The Art World Is Reevaluating Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat's Controversial Partnership

"Untitled," a highlight of the duo's collaboration in the 1980s, could fetch $18 million at auction

Since Titanic premiered in 1997, skeptics have been insisting that Jack and Rose could have both survived on their makeshift raft. 

Floating Board From 'Titanic' Sells for Over $700,000

The infamous prop has long been the source of heated debate: Did Jack really have to die?

Wooden boards and plastic screens surround Banksy's latest confirmed artwork in London.

Someone Vandalized Banksy's New Mural in London. Now, It's Been Covered Up

The coverings were added to protect the art, but critics worry they detract from the artist's intentions

Liverpool artist William Lindsay Windus painted The Black Boy in 1844.

This Museum Needs Your Help Identifying the Subject of a 19th-Century Painting

Nobody knows the name of the child in "The Black Boy," but a museum in Liverpool is hoping someone will recognize him

Waiters walked quickly through the streets of central Paris on Sunday while carefully balancing a tray on one hand.

Waiters Race Through the Streets of Paris While Balancing Trays of Coffee and Croissants

About 200 servers competed in the 1.2-mile race—a tradition that goes back to 1914

The Louvre received a bomb threat targeting valuable paintings, including the Mona Lisa, earlier this month.

Louvre Receives Bomb Threat Against 'Mona Lisa' and Other Masterpieces

The message came in through the museum's online contact form on March 17

The Horse Fair by French artist Rosa Bonheur hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. 

Five Museums Unveil Audio Guides Celebrating Lesser-Known Women Artists

The project—titled Museums Without Men—debuted in the U.S. and the U.K. during Women's History Month

Independent craniofacial anthropologist Chris Rynn created lifelike facial reconstructions of four individuals who lived in the region.

Art Meets Science

See the Faces of Four Scots Across Thousands of Years of History, Brought to Life Using A.I.

The Perth Museum in Scotland is unveiling digital reconstructions of men and women who lived in the region from the Bronze Age through the 16th century

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