A Francis Bacon painting of a man and his reflection brought in $44.9 million at Sotheby's in New York on Wednesday, capping a week of breathtaking sales in the luxury art market.

Bacon's "Figure Writing Reflected in a Mirror" was one of the three pillars at the Manhattan auction and had a pre-sale estimate of $30 million to $40 million.

Beirut Photo Exhibition is the first international photography fair in Lebanon that will be held in September 2012, and has thus urged all photographers to submit photographic works for the initial selection phase.

The photographers are required to send, before June 15th 2012, three photographic works (less than 3 years old) in color or black and white to artheum@gmail.com with first name, last name, bio, works description, & contact details.

The Lebanese Film Festival is back on this summer's festivals program and will be celebrating its 10th anniversary from August 23-26, 2012 at the Metropolis Empire Sofil, the LFF said in a press release Wednesday.

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, the Lebanese Film Festival, which was created by “..né.à Beyrouth” in 2001, has come up with a revised program set up by a new team.

A sunset-colored painting by Mark Rothko became the world's most expensive contemporary art work Tuesday when it fetched $86.9 million in a stunningly lucrative auction at Christie's in New York.

"Orange, red, yellow" was as hot on the Christie's block as the colors on the bold, large-scale abstract canvas. A thicket of hands shot up to catch the attention of auctioneer Christopher Burge, bids leaping in increments of a million, sometimes two million dollars.

When the French seized Casablanca in the early 1900s, they turned the historic Morrocan port into a classic of colonial architecture that would be immortalized in the 1942 namesake film.

In the decades since the release of "Casablanca", real-estate development and property speculation have reshaped the city into one bearing little resemblance to its movie depiction and preservationists are increasingly fretting about what will become of the crumbling French colonial facades, neo-Moorish details and Art Deco hotels.

A priceless 17th-century Stradivarius cello got broken while being handled by experts in Spain's royal palace, an official said Monday.

The cello is one of five antique instruments by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari, renowned for the exquisite sound of his instruments, which were acquired by king Felipe V who ruled Spain at the turn of the 18th century.

Experts have long debated whether the sophisticated animal drawings in a famous French cave are indeed the oldest of their kind in the world, and a study out Monday suggests that yes, they are.

The smooth curves and fine details in the paintings of bears, rhinoceroses and horses in the Chauvet cave in southern France's picturesque Ardeche region are so advanced that some scholars thought they dated from 12,000 to 17,000 years ago.

After being forced to drop out of school last year because his family needed more income, Gio Vakaloloma turned to the only job available -- selling coconuts on the streets of Suva.

Early every morning, the slightly built 13-year-old shimmies up the palm trees that grow abundantly in the Fijian capital and begins throwing down green coconuts to his friends below.

Dozens of Buddhists led by monks have joined a demonstration urging Sri Lanka's government to proceed with plans to dismantle a mosque located in a sacred Buddhist area.

The protesters marched peacefully through Kalutara town south of Colombo on Monday.

Yarmulkes bob as voices swell in a sacred song carried from ancient Judea to the scenic fields of a far-flung southern African village that is home to a "lost tribe" of Israel.

"We have been singing this song for about 2,600 years. It's an old, old song," said Perez Hamandishe, wearing a white crocheted skullcup with a blue Star of David in a small village near Gutu, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the capital Harare.