Sotheby's on Wednesday auctioned off more than $290 million in impressionist and modern art in New York with old favorites Picasso, Monet and Giacometti commanding the highest bids.

The flagship November evening sale attracted record interest from Asian and Latin American buyers, underscoring extraordinary growth in an increasingly global market.

South Korea's state heritage body apologized Thursday for apparent structural problems at a landmark monument that only recently re-opened after a five-year, multi-million dollar restoration.

Seoul's 600-year-old Namdaemun (South Gate), listed as "National Treasure Number One" and a source of immense cultural pride, was burned pretty much to the ground on February 10, 2008.

Christie's auction house in New York says Pablo Picasso's model of his famed Chicago sculpture didn't sell at auction after bids failed to meet a minimum reserve.

Authorities had hoped the sheet metal model would bring between $25 million and $35 million when it went up for auction Monday in New York.

Following his success in the regionally‐renowned Lebanese Hip Hop band, Fareeq el Atrash, Syrian‐Filipino rapper Chyno is set to release his debut single, “OPP”, from his upcoming album “Making Music to Feel At Home” set to be released early 2014. Through his involvement in Fareeq el Atrash, Chyno has made countless media appearances on major media programs, including Arab’s Got Talent, MTV, LBCI and Future TV. His previous musical compositions appear on Fareeq’s 2010 self‐titled debut as well as the group’s second album, “Al Mawjeh el Tarsha” released in May 2013. Chyno has also performed in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Spain, France, Italy and Sweden.



Two paintings thought to be the first depiction of a kangaroo and a dingo in Western art will remain in Britain after a national fundraising campaign to stop them being sold to an Australian gallery, officials said Wednesday.

The oils by British animal painter George Stubbs were first exhibited in London in 1773, giving the public their first glimpse of the exotic creatures most identified with the wild new territory of Australia.

Just a few blocks from the White House where Myanmar's president was feted for working for democracy, another side of his country is now on display at a more haunting Washington landmark: the plight of its most beleaguered people, the Rohingya Muslims, depicted in photos projected at night onto the external walls of the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The stark, black and white images by American photographer Greg Constantine combine searching portraits with pictures of the scorched settlements the Rohingya were forced to flee after a deadly outbreak of sectarian violence last summer that left more than 100,000 confined to camps and further darkened the prospects for this stateless people. They are denied citizenship in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and are typically regarded there as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Some of the finest Impressionist and Modern art offered for auction by Christie's in New York fell short of expectations Tuesday despite strong interest from buyers in the middle market.

The auction house estimated that 46 lots at its flagship November evening sale would fetch $188.8 to $277.7 million, but instead sales peaked at $144.3 million late Tuesday.

The Gaza Strip's Hamas government said on Tuesday it had added studies to encourage "resistance to Israel" to the territory's public schools curriculum.

Courses to "strengthen Palestinian rights, update programs and add studies on human rights" would be introduced at three levels in secondary schools, Education Minister Muetassem al-Minaui told Agence France Presse.

The head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land protested Tuesday against Israel's demolition of a church-owned property in annexed east Jerusalem, saying it eroded chances for peace.

"This act is against the law, against justice and against humanity, against any ideology upon which peace can be built and increases segregation and hate," Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fuad Tawwal told journalists at the site of the demolition.

The Vatican on Tuesday launched an unprecedented worldwide consultation on the new realities of family life including gay marriage as part of Pope Francis's efforts to reform the Catholic Church.

A questionnaire has been sent to bishops around the world asking them for detailed information about the "many new situations requiring the Church's attention and pastoral care".