As he gently lowers a fishing net into an azure lagoon, Saponkit Klatalay concedes he no longer roams the waters for days and nights like generations of sea gypsies before him, but prefers to sleep on the Thai mainland where he was resettled after the 2004 tsunami.

His village of "Chao Lay" sea-people drew on their ancestors' knowledge to survive the deadly waves, but the disaster has also thrust modernity upon his community and hastened their drift from the centuries-old seafaring traditions that saved their lives.

A rare 1939 comic drawing from the adventures of boy hero Tintin sold for 539,880 euros ($673,468) during auctions staged simultaneously in Brussels and Paris on Sunday.

The sketch by Herge was among scores of French and Belgian comic works that fetched a total of 1.89 million euros, organizers said, higher than initial estimates had predicted.

A recent work of fiction by Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano will be published in the U.S. late next year.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced Sunday that it has acquired "So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood" ("Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans le quartier"). The publisher calls it a "haunting novel of suspense" set, like much of Modiano's work, in Paris.

Several employees from Uzbekistan's top museum have been jailed for selling original art works and replacing them with copies for 15 years, the General Prosecutor's Office newspaper reported Friday.

The chief curator of the Uzbek State Arts Museum, Mirfayz Usmonov, received a nine-year sentence and two other museum staff received eight years each, the Huquq newspaper reported.

Eight-year-old Rahma was on her way home from school when she was raped -- another victim of a surge in child abuse that has been overshadowed by turmoil in Egypt.

Two months on, she is still receiving psychotherapy and dreads going anywhere near the spot where the assault took place, close to the family farm in the Nile Delta.

A terracotta statue dating back to about 200 BC has been returned to the Chinese authorities after being intercepted by customs in Switzerland, the Swiss government said Friday.

The statue from the Han dynasty measures about 47 centimeters (18.5 inches) and is thought to be of a servant, the culture ministry said in a statement.

A task force investigating the provenance of priceless paintings found in a Nazi-era art hoard said Friday it had received more than 200 queries about specific works by possible heirs.

The head of the panel of experts, Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, said there had been a strong response to its call for the families of suspected victims of art looting under Hitler to come forward and stake claims.

In the unlikely setting of one of Italy’s mafia heartlands, a major exhibition of modern artworks by and about women has opened with organizers billing it as the biggest ever of its kind.

Featuring the work of more than 80 female artists from all over the world, the "I am Woman" collection is the latest brainchild of master of provocation Antonio Manfredi, the director of the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in Casoria.

Christie's strengthened its foothold in the Indian art market Thursday with only its second sale in the country, showcasing a range of work by homegrown modern artists.

The London-based auction house offered 78 lots at Mumbai's luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel and raised 752.7 million rupees ($12.04 million), exceeding estimates, following its first sale in the same venue last year.

Pro-democracy protesters have vowed to rebuild the famous "Lennon Wall" which sat at the heart of Hong Kong's main protest camp, after it was swept clear by police.

The wall at the center of the camp became a patchwork of thousands of multi-colored sticky notes carrying messages of support for protesters -- an emotive symbol of the pro-democracy movement that paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for more than two months.