Prince Albert II of Monaco is auctioning off part of the luxury car collection started by his father Prince Rainier III, with vehicles by Bentley, Panhard and Porsche among those up for sale.

Forty vehicles will be available at an auction July 26 at Prince Albert's car museum in Monaco. The cars are being sold due to a "comprehensive reorganization" of the collection, auction house Artcurial Motorcars said in a press release.

Romania's Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Friday said he was ready to revisit changes he'd made to the country's cultural body, after the overhaul led to widespread protests from the arts world.

Thousands of artists in Europe joined their Romanian counterparts in protest after Ponta issued an emergency order June 13 shifting control of the state-funded Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) from the presidency, held by rival Traian Basescu, to the senate.

Glass jewelry believed to have been made by Roman craftsmen has been found in an ancient tomb in Japan, researchers said Friday, in a sign the empire's influence may have reached the edge of Asia.

Tests have revealed three glass beads discovered in the Fifth Century "Utsukushi" burial mound in Nagaoka, near Kyoto, were probably made some time between the first and the fourth century, the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties said.

The Palestinians' quest to get Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity named a UNESCO World Heritage site is set to dominate a meeting next week in Russia to decide who is accepted on the prestigious list.

The World Heritage Committee is meeting in Saint Petersburg from June 24 to July 6 and is to rule on the Palestinians' first contentious application since they joined the U.N.'s cultural body in October last year.

The Toledo Museum of Art says it will return an ancient water jug to Italy that investigators believe was probably illegally dug up from that country years ago.

The 2,500-year-old water vessel, or kalpis, has been on display at the Ohio museum since 1982, when it was purchased from an antiquities dealer out of Switzerland. It will be displayed in the museum's Libbey Court until it leaves for Rome, probably in late summer.

Pablo Picasso's 'Femme assise', which depicts the Spanish artist's lover Francoise Gilot while heavily pregnant with their daughter Paloma, sold for over £8 million at a London auction on Wednesday.

The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie's realized £92,583,550 ($145,541,340, 114,618,435 euros) in total with the 1949 Picasso work topping the public lots after going under the hammer for £8,553,250.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday sacked four academics from a leading research center over a book that sparked fury for reportedly insulting the Hazara ethnic group.

The head of the Afghanistan Academy of Science and three other scholars were dismissed and referred to the attorney general's office for questioning, Karzai's office said in a statement.

Byzantium frescoes, paintings by early Baroque artists and a letter by Christopher Colombus are among 31 stolen artifacts recovered by Italian police to go on show Wednesday at UNESCO's Paris headquarters.

"This exhibition ... is aimed at raising awareness worldwide about the safeguarding of our cultural heritage," said Pasquale Muggeo, general of Italy's Carabinieri paramilitary police which recovered the stolen works with help from authorities worldwide.

After decades struggling with official censorship, China's contemporary music scene is finally taking off, fuelled by live shows, the Internet and a government eager to cash in on a growing market.

Chinese indie bands came late to the music scene, largely missing out on the lucrative days of vinyl records, cassettes and compact discs, and also suffered enormously from state broadcasters' preference for pop.

A father in northwestern India remained unrepentant Tuesday after beheading his daughter with a ceremonial sword in a rage over her relationships with men, police said.

The father surrendered at a police station, carrying the head in one hand and the bloodied sword in the other, police said.