Culture
Latest stories
'Welcome Back, Lenin' as Berlin Digs up Cold War Relic

A quarter century after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Lenin made a comeback of sorts Thursday as authorities unearthed a granite head of the Russian revolutionary to truck it across the German capital.

The 3.5 tonne piece, long buried and half forgotten in a forest on the edge of the city, will become an eye-catching highlight of a new museum exhibit of key figures that played a role in Germany's turbulent history.

W140 Full Story
MoMA: 1st U.S. Exhibition of Picasso Sculptures in 50 Years

New York's Museum of Modern Art is devoting an entire floor to the sculptures of Pablo Picasso in the first major U.S. museum survey of his three-dimensional work in nearly 50 years.

From his earliest piece, a tiny terra cotta of a seated woman created in 1902, to a head of a woman made in 1964, "Picasso Sculpture" features more than 140 works on loan from private and public collections that showcase the scope, range and variety of his sculptures. They include his bronze "She-Goat" from 1950 and sheet metal and wire "Guitar" from 1914 from MoMA's own collection.

W140 Full Story
Art School Colors Slum in Indian Capital

On the edge of a slum in India's capital, past rubbish and an open sewer, a dozen children are diligently drawing everything from Mahatma Gandhi to popular cartoon character Chota Bheem.

Watching over them is Rangamma Kaul, a 51-year-old teacher determined to bring art to the ramshackle colony in New Delhi's west whose families scratch a living labouring on construction sites and selling street food.

W140 Full Story
India Muslim Leader Warns of Unrest over Cow Protection Push

A Muslim leader in India warned Wednesday of communal unrest after a state government claimed the Koran discourages eating beef, the latest contentious effort to protect cows in the Hindu-majority country.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat has erected billboards with an alleged Koranic verse saying eating beef causes disease, together with an Islamic symbol of a crescent moon and star.

W140 Full Story
China Exhibition Attracts Record Number of Visitors

A New York exhibition exploring Chinese influence on Western fashion attracted a record 815,992 visitors during a four-month summer run in a sign of China's growing clout in America.

"China: Through the Looking Glass," was the most visited show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and the fifth most popular show at the entire museum overall.

W140 Full Story
Bosnians Turn out to Save Country's Oldest Museum

Though Bosnia's National Museum was shut three years ago, loyal employees have occupied the building, whose treasures include an ancient Jewish manuscript, to shame authorities into reopening it.

The museum, Bosnia's oldest, is a 19th-century legacy of the Austro-Hungarian empire that has never before closed, despite two world wars and Bosnia's own bloody 1992-95 conflict following the breakup of the old Yugoslav federation.

W140 Full Story
French Government Condemns 'Christian Refugees Only' Mayors

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve condemned on Tuesday mayors in France who have said they are only prepared to allow Christian refugees to settle in their towns.

"I really don't understand this distinction. I condemn it and I think it's dreadful," Cazeneuve told France 2 television.

W140 Full Story
Final Preparations: The Sursock Museum Gets Ready to Reopen

Beirut, Lebanon—September 7, 2015

As the Sursock Museum’s reopening date nears (October 8, 2015), the Museum’s Committee held a meeting on September 3 to discuss the final preparations for the opening exhibitions and programs.

W140 Full Story
Pope Makes it Easier for Catholics to End Marriages

Pope Francis wants to make it easier for Catholics to have their marriages annulled under reforms regarded with suspicion by conservatives wary of the de facto introduction of Church-approved divorce.

Details of significant reforms of a system that critics including Francis himself have attacked as needlessly bureaucratic, expensive and unfair were due to be unveiled Tuesday with the publication of letters on the issue from the pope to Catholic churches across the world.

W140 Full Story
Stonehenge Archeologists Find Huge Neolithic Site

Archaeologists on Monday said they had found the buried remains of a mysterious prehistoric monument close to Britain's famous Stonehenge heritage site.

Up to 90 standing stones, some originally measuring 4.5 meters (15 feet) and dating back some 4,500 years, may have been buried for millennia under a bank of earth, they said.

W140 Full Story