Setting fire to art in Christie's posh Manhattan showrooms would usually get you arrested. But when a senior auctioneer lit up a $1 million art work Friday -- that was the point.

Brett Gorvy, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art for Christie's, held a lighter to one of 14 candle wicks protruding from "Untitled (Standing)," a more-than-life-sized wax sculpture of art collector and publisher Peter Brant.

Asia's architectural treasures, from a Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan to an ancient city in China, are in danger of vanishing under a tide of economic expansion, war and tourism, experts said Thursday.

The Global Heritage Fund named 10 sites facing "irreparable loss and destruction."

Adolf Hitler had a "messiah complex" and became increasingly obsessed with the perceived Jewish "enemy within" as World War II turned against Germany, according to a secret 1942 assessment unveiled Friday.

The British intelligence report, which lay apparently unread from the war until its recent rediscovery, found that the Nazi dictator turned to "Jew-phobia" as the likelihood of defeat increased.

It took a mother's last wish, and a man to make it happen, but Ivory Coast now has its first all-women orchestra in what is hailed as a little "revolution" in this fiercely patriarchal society.

"Why is it so surprising to see women play instruments?" asked Landry Louoba, one of the 10 women in the Bella Mondo band.

Hussein al-Kharsan kneels, bent over a giant sheet of paper, laboriously writing the words of Islam's holy book, the Koran, in beautiful Arabic script with a traditional wood and feather pen.

The 25-year-old Iraqi aims to take an unusual path to fame: writing the longest copy of the Koran in the world. Kharsan says the scroll is to be between 5,500 and 6,000 meters long, or 3.4 and 3.7 miles.

Afghanistan, which achieved global notoriety for cultural barbarism when the Taliban blew up the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas, this week, opened an exhibition highlighting the country's rich Buddhist heritage.

In sharp contrast to the religious intolerance behind the destruction of the Buddhas 11 years ago, the immaculate exhibition is on display in the National Museum, itself rebuilt with international aid after being destroyed by civil war.

One of the art world's most recognizable images — Edvard Munch's "The Scream" — sold Wednesday for a record $119,922,500 at auction in New York City.

The 1895 artwork — a modern symbol of human anxiety — was sold at Sotheby's. Neither the buyer's name nor any details about the buyer was released.

Beijing has announced plans to rebuild some of the gates in its long-lost imperial city wall: such is the way of heritage in China, where conservation often means demolition and putting up a replica.

The authorities are promising to restore the original appearance of the monumental Ming and Qing dynasty arches in the wall, which was demolished in the 1950s and stood where a ring road and metro line now run.

A line of women wait their turn at a building in northern Nigeria, ready to participate in a program local officials hope will bring two results: marriage and peace.

Love might have to come later.

A verdict in the trial of a Tunisian television station director accused of insulting sacred values for having screened the Franco-Iranian film "Persepolis" is set for Thursday, court sources said.

Nabil Karoui's Nessma television station broadcast the award-winning animated film, which recounts the Iranian revolution and its aftermath through the eyes of a young girl, on October 7 last year.