Arts & Culture
Rijksmuseum to re-open after 10 years of restoration
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will officially re-open the Rijksmuseum next week, marking the end of a painful restoration project. The work at the Dutch...
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the only person to have won Oscar and Booker, dies aged 85
Novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, whose scripts for Howards End and A Room With A View earned her two Oscars, has died at home in...
Iain Banks has terminal gallbladder cancer
Scottish author Iain Banks has revealed today that he has late stage gallbladder cancer and is unlikely to live for more than a year. Iain...
JRR Tolkien curse ring exhibited at The Vyne
An ancient gold ring thought to have inspired JRR Tolkien to write The Hobbit is being exhibited for the first time at The Vyne,...
Franz Welser-Moest collapses while conducting at Vienna State Opera
Musical director of the Vienna State Opera Franz Welser-Moest was treated in hospital after collapsing with back pain while conducting a Wagner opera on...
Amazon buys Goodreads website
Amazon has announced it will buy Goodreads, a book discovery and recommendation website. San Francisco-based Goodreads was founded in 2007, has 16 million members and...
Louvre tops list of most visited art museums of 2012
Louvre has topped the list of the most visited art museums of 2012, according to the Art Newspaper. The publication's annual survey found 9.7 million...
Tilda Swinton sleeping in a glass box at MoMA in New York
Tilda Swinton is sleeping in a fitted glass box at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) this month. Museum goers are able to peer...
Bebo Valdes dies in Sweden at the age of 94
Jazzman Bebo Valdes, a central figure in the golden era of Cuban big band music, has died in Sweden at the age of 94. Bebo...
Chinua Achebe, renowned Nigerian writer, dies in US at the age of 82
Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, one of Africa's best known authors, has died at the age of 82 after a brief illness. A statement from his...
Mezzo-soprano Rise Stevens dies three months shy of her 100th birthday
Mezzo-soprano Rise Stevens, who sang with the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan for more than 20 years, has died in New York three months shy...
Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl portrait nears £1 million mark at London auction
Vladimir Tretchikoff's Chinese Girl portrait, thought to be the world's most reproduced painting, has fetched £982,050 ($1,570,000) at Bonhams auction in London. The sum, which...
Author James Herbert dies aged 69
British horror author James Herbert, best known for classic The Rats, has died aged 69. James Herbert’s publisher, Pan Macmillan, confirmed that the best-selling author...
Balshoi Ballet “is just a giant brothel for oligarchs”, claims former soloist Anastasia Volochkova
Anastasia Volochkova, a Bolshoi former soloist, claimed female dancers at the famous Russian ballet theatre were forced to sleep with wealthy patrons. Anastasia Volochkova accused...
Chinese bowl originally bought for $3 fetches $2.2 million at Sotheby’s auction
A rare Chinese bowl bought for $3 at a New York state garage sale has sold for $2.2 million at Sotheby's auction. The 1,000-year-old Ding...
Toyo Ito wins 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize
Japanese architect Toyo Ito will receive 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize, a prestigious award, known throughout the world as architecture’s highest honor, often compared to...
Sergei Filin may recover sight after acid attack
Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, may recover enough of his sight to work again, doctors treating him at...
Titanic violin played by Wallace Hartley is genuine
After seven years of investigation, auctioneers found out that the violin thought to be the one played by the band leader of the Titanic...
Vienna Philharmonic to publish details of its Nazi past
The Vienna Philharmonic orchestra is expected to publish details of its history during the Nazi era in response to accusations of a cover-up. The orchestra...
Pavel Dmitrichenko confesses to Bolshoi acid attack on Sergei Filin
Bolshoi Ballet soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko and two other men have confessed to an acid attack on Sergei Filin, the company's artistic director, say Moscow...
Pavel Dmitrichenko arrested over Bolshoi acid attack
Bolshoi Ballet soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko has been detained by police, suspected of ordering an acid attack on artistic director Sergei Filin. Dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko is...
Bolshoi acid attack suspect questioned in Moscow
Russian police in Moscow have brought in for questioning a suspect in the acid attack on the Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director, Sergei Filin. A brief...
Composer Armando Trovajoli dies aged 95
Italian composer Armando Trovajoli, who wrote the scores for around 300 films, has died aged 95. During a long career Armando Trovajoli worked with some...
Pianist Van Cliburn dies aged 78
Renowned American classical pianist Van Cliburn has died aged 78. Van Cliburn died at his home in Fort Worth, Texas on 27 February, after suffering...
Rudyard Kipling unpublished poems discovered
More than 50 unpublished poems by Rudyard Kipling have been discovered by a US scholar. Thomas Pinney found the manuscripts in a number of...
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