Stolen marble head of Rome’s first emperor returns to Italy

Basquiat record set in solid result for Christie’s contemporary art auction
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Jean-Michel Basquiat self portrait soared to an artist’s record $57.3 million on Tuesday to help Christie’s to a solid result for an auction of contemporary art held amid an art market gripped by uncertainty.

Van Gogh recycled: Four million bottles used in Taiwan replica
TAIPEI (Reuters) – A Taiwan company has used four million colorful plastic bottles to produce a giant replica of Vincent van Gogh’s painting ‘The Starry Night’ to promote recycling.

Rodin sculpture sets auction record at spotty Sotheby’s sale
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Rodin sculpture set a new artist’s auction record at Sotheby’s on Monday when it sold for $20.4 million, but the strong price was likely to provide little reassurance to an art market that many fear is softening after years of spiking prices.

Syrian refugee brings his art to Lithuania
VILNIUS (Reuters) – A faceless skull with a crown of spikes and blood pouring from its wounds, symbolizing a Syrian caught in the horror of civil war, stares out from a painting on the wall in a student theater in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Youth orchestra plucks oasis out of gangland El Salvador
SAN SALVADOR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The sweet sounds of classical music float across a sunny courtyard as a group of teenagers pluck the strings of violins and cellos.

Japanese court rules vagina figurines ‘pop art’, not obscenity
TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese court found on Monday an artist not guilty of obscenity for displaying figurines modeled on her vagina, signaling a step towards freedom of expression, although the court fined her for distributing digital data of her genitals.

LED-lit pigeons illuminate New York skies in art exhibit
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thousands of pigeons with tiny LED lights strapped to their legs swooped through the darkening skies in a jaw-dropping display of beauty, but savvy New Yorkers gazing up at the performance art knew enough to keep their mouths shut.

A flaming passion: ex-miner creates everyday replicas with matches
RUDA SLASKA, Poland (Reuters) – Janusz Urbanski has a one of a kind chessboard he never plays, a personalised guitar he does not strum and a boat he cannot sail. Why? They are all made from tens of thousands of matches.

Mexican exhibit sheds light on lives of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera
MEXICO CITY – Personal letters, manuscripts and photographs belonging to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera that had been locked away for decades are the focus of a new exhibition about the lives and relationship of two of Mexico’s most celebrated artists.

Pompeii, Bourbon jail, to gain from $1 billion culture handout in Italy
ROME (Reuters) – The ancient Roman city of Pompeii, an island jail built by the Bourbons and the home of Botticelli’s Venus are among dozens of cultural sites due to share in a 1 billion euro ($1.15 billion) cash injection, Italy’s culture ministry said on Monday.

Christie’s fetes 250 years in business with major British art sale
LONDON (Reuters) – From Joshua Reynolds to Lucian Freud, works spanning several centuries of British art will go under the hammer as part of a sale celebrating 250 years since auction house Christie’s was founded.

Artist Ai Weiwei to release documentary on refugee crisis
BERN (Reuters) – Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei plans to release a film about the migrant crisis next year, adding to the celebrity voices seeking to highlight the plight of refugees.

French magnate finally finds Paris home for artworks
PARIS (Reuters) – French luxury goods magnate Francois Pinault is finally achieving his ambition of opening a museum in Paris to house his vast private art collection a decade after he ditched previous plans over red tape and opened a gallery in Venice instead.

Art detective says female and male model used for Mona Lisa face
FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) – Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile draws millions of viewers from across the world, all eager to see the art world’s most famous female face. But is it?

Rice sculpture: Taiwan artist gets granular with president elect
TAIPEI (Reuters) – A Taiwan artist has refused to see the big picture and instead captured the likeness of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen, to celebrate her inauguration next month, on a single grain of rice.

Recreation of destroyed Palmyra arch unveiled in London
LONDON (Reuters) – A meticulous recreation of the 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, Syria, destroyed by Islamic State militants last year, has been erected in Trafalgar Square in what London Mayor Boris Johnson called an act of defiance.

New art museum seeks to shed dangerous image of Brussels’ Molenbeek
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A new art museum has opened its doors in Brussels’ Molenbeek district hoping to help shed the negative image of the area, most recently linked to the deadly attacks in Paris and the Belgian capital.

Chicago eyes $1.5 billion bonds for ‘Star Wars’ filmmaker Lucas’ museum
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Bonds valued at up to $1.5 billion would be issued under Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal to bring a museum, proposed by “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas, to Chicago, the city said on Monday.

Italian police recover Nazi-looted paintings in Milan
MILAN (Reuters) – Three late 15th century paintings missing since they were looted by Nazi troops from a Tuscan villa over 70 years ago have been recovered and two people have been accused of receiving stolen goods, police announced on Monday.

Mali bids final farewell to renowned photographer Malick Sidibe
BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali bid a final farewell on Saturday to Malick Sidibe, an award-winning photographer considered a national treasure for his unique studio portraits and candid black-and-white depictions of popular culture in his West African homeland.

Millennium of Middle Eastern art up for auction
Sotheby’s is staging what it calls its most comprehensive series of exhibitions and sales to cover the history of Middle Eastern art.

Banksy exhibition hits Munich art scene
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) – A collection of Bansky works is on display in Munich, showcasing a variety of pieces by the well-known – and unknown – graffiti artist.

Caravaggio’s characters captured from canvas in Rome
ROME (Reuters) – Art lovers are invited to immerse themselves in Italian painter Caravaggio’s scenes of pain and pleasure in a Rome display with a difference – there is not a single canvas on show.

Ukraine recovers four stolen Dutch paintings
KIEV (Reuters) – Four Dutch masterpieces dating from the country’s 17th-century Golden Age have been recovered by security services in Ukraine over 10 years after they were stolen from a museum in the Netherlands, Ukraine Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Thursday.

Painting found in French attic is $137 million Caravaggio, say experts
PARIS (Reuters) – A painting found in the attic of a house in southwest France two years ago was attributed to the Italian master Caravaggio by private French experts who hailed its discovery on Tuesday as a great event in the history of art.

Merkel stresses freedom of art after Erdogan files complaint against comedian
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday Germany wanted to find a solution to the migrant crisis but this was separate to artistic freedom after the Turkish leader filed a complaint against a comedian for insulting him with a satirical poem.

Warhols stolen from Missouri museum; FBI offers reward for information
(Reuters) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday offered up to $25,000 as a reward for information on seven Andy Warhol paintings stolen from a Missouri art museum last week.

Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ chair sells for bewitching $394,000
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A wooden chair used by J.K. Rowling when she wrote her first two “Harry Potter” books has sold for $394,000 at a New York auction – more than eight times its opening bid.

Austrian museum reaches settlement over Nazi-looted artwork
VIENNA (Reuters) – Vienna’s Leopold Museum said on Thursday it had reached a settlement over five Nazi-looted works of art in its collection that will return two of them to the heir of their original Jewish owner, a victim of the Holocaust.

Rare First Folio of Shakespeare’s collected plays found in Scotland
LONDON (Reuters) – A rare, nearly 400-year-old copy of a first edition of William Shakespeare’s collected plays has been found at a stately home in Scotland, on the Isle of Bute.

Greece picks own director to head arts festival after Belgian artist quits
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece on Monday picked a local theater director to curate its most renowned annual summer arts festival after Belgian artist Jan Fabre quit following protests from artists that his plans excluded Greek works.

Cirque du Soleil prepares to make its Broadway debut
NEW YORK – Canada’s famed Cirque du Soleil is bringing its act to Broadway for the first time with the show “Paramour” that mixes, song, dance, acting and dazzling acrobats for a story set in Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid dies suddenly at 65
LONDON (Reuters) – Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, whose fluid, futuristic designs were used in buildings across the world to widespread acclaim, has died of a heart attack at the age of 65, her company said on Thursday.

Visits to Berlin’s Islamic Museum restore pride in Syrian refugees
BERLIN (Reuters) – Arabic-language guide Razan Nassreddine says Syrian refugees visiting Berlin’s Museum of Islamic Art often ask her how and when the artifacts clearly marked as stemming from their war-torn country ended up in the German capital.

U.S. fills in the blanks as coloring books sweep market
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Coloring books, once seen only as a pastime for children, have become a growing craze for American adults looking to unwind or test their creativity with coloring pencils.

Bound with love: art of bookbinding flourishes in London
LONDON – In an age of Kindles and e-books, a small workshop in south London is sticking to tradition by binding books the old fashioned way.

Banksy’s ‘Happy Choppers’ leads works up for auction in California
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A collection of works by elusive British graffiti artist Banksy left on walls, screen prints and other unorthodox means is expected to sell for more than $500,000 when it goes up for auction in southern California next month.

Patterson, Sullivan’s ‘Private Paris’ debuts atop U.S. best-seller list
(Reuters) – James Patterson and Mark Sullivan’s latest spy thriller “Private Paris” debuted at the top of the weekly U.S. fiction best-seller chart on Thursday.

Trump effigy takes an offal approach to celebrity for HK art show
HONG KONG (Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has been pilloried in many ways, over his bouffant hair, orange skin and supposedly small hands, but a British artist has now used raw pig and sheep parts to sculpt him for a Hong Kong art show.