"It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood."

The line from Shakespeare's Macbeth might easily have been written about the legacy of World War I.

China has long sought to recover treasures it says were looted by foreigners, but a tycoon's $1.6 million deal for the return of seven white marble columns from Norway is raising unusual debate on the issue.

Critics have openly challenged the motives of real estate developer Huang Nubo, whose donation to the KODE Art Museums of Bergen paved the way for the return of the Old Summer Palace relics, and some argued they should not be "bought back".

Jazz musicians are famous for their musical conversations — one improvises a few bars and another plays an answer. Now research shows some of the brain's language regions enable that musical back-and-forth much like a spoken conversation.

It gives new meaning to the idea of music as a universal language.

The oldest and largest private museum in Washington, the financially troubled Corcoran Gallery of Art, will be taken over by the government-backed National Gallery of Art under a proposal announced Wednesday.

In a joint statement, the two cultural institutions said they were in talks that envision the National Gallery of Art assuming initial responsibility for the Corcoran's priceless collection of some 17,000 works of art.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who helped make his name smashing a valuable vase in the name of art, said Wednesday that he was miffed about another artist destroying one of his vases in Florida.

Maximo Caminero was charged with criminal mischief after destroying a vase valued at $1 million that was part of Ai's exhibit at the Perez Art Museum Miami. The Florida artist said he smashed the vase Sunday to protest the institution's lack of displays of local artists.

Lawyers for the German art collector who kept more than 1,400 works in his Munich apartment have filed an appeal against the pieces' seizure two years ago, arguing that the decision was disproportionate and the art irrelevant as evidence in the case against their client.

Collector Cornelius Gurlitt's spokesman, Stephan Holzinger, said in a statement Wednesday the complaint against the decision to search Gurlitt's apartment and seize the art was filed last week at a court in Augsburg, where prosecutors handling the case are based.

A group of 83 mostly elderly South Koreans accompanied by family converged Wednesday on a coastal resort prior to crossing into North Korea for the first reunion in more than three years for the peninsula's divided families.

Having had their hopes shattered when Pyongyang cancelled a previous reunion last September, many had been wary of the agreement to hold a gathering from Thursday at a mountain retreat in North Korea.

One of three works by the elusive British street artist Banksy has sold at a Miami auction for $575,000.

An anonymous buyer purchased "Kissing Coppers," spray-painted in 2005 on the Prince Albert Pub in Brighton, England, at the Fine Art Auctions Miami on Tuesday night. The piece was expected to sell anywhere from $500,000 to $700,000.

Five years after it closed for a two-year renovation, Paris's Picasso museum -- which houses one of the world's most extensive collections of the Spanish master's work -- is to reopen its doors.

The final bill for the refurbishment of the 17th-century baroque mansion in Paris's historic Marais quarter now stands at 52 million euros ($71 million), 22 million euros more than the original budget due to changes in the scope of the work.

Lebanese poet Ounsi al-Hajj, who pioneered the use of free verse in Arabic poetry in the 20th century, died Tuesday aged 77.

"His health had deteriorated in recent days. He was suffering from colon cancer and died on Tuesday afternoon, surrounded by his family at his home," a relative told Agence France Presse.