NEW YORK (Reuters) – The record breaking $142.4 million sale of Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” shows confidence in the art market and that the very wealthy see it as a safe haven for their money, experts said on Wednesday. Bacon’s 1969 three-p... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Francis Bacon’s painting “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” became the most expensive work of art ever sold when it fetched $142.4 million in one of the biggest auctions in history at which Christie’s sold more than $691 million worth of art.... More »
BERLIN/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Germany began publishing an online list on Tuesday of works that were discovered in a huge art stash in a Munich flat last year and believed for the most part to have been stolen or extorted by the Nazis. The move was welcomed by la... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – Hundreds of people lined up at Toronto City Hall on Tuesday to buy a limited-edition bobblehead doll of embattled Mayor Rob Ford, which quickly sold out and began popping up on eBay for as much as 15 times its purchase price. Ford, who insi... More »
(Advisory: Graphic language in paragraph 3) DETROIT (Reuters) – Tesla Motors Inc got more bad news this week following the third fire in its Model S electric sedan as actor George Clooney complained about being stuck on the side of the road in the Roadster spo... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany, under pressure to hasten inquiries into Nazi-looted art works stashed in a recluse’s flat, has sent legal experts to help local authorities in Munich resolve myriad ownership issues, Focus magazine reported on Sunday. The federal go... More »
BERLIN/MUNICH (Reuters) – On the doorbell of the apartment in Munich’s bohemian Schwabing district is a name once distinguished for architecture and music but infamous since the Nazi era by association with the plundering of art works owned by Jews: Gurlitt. T... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Previously unknown paintings by Henri Matisse and Otto Dix are among a vast trove of Nazi-looted art found in a Munich apartment that includes works by some of Europe’s most celebrated artists, German experts said on Tuesday. Customs investi... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Colombian artist Fernando Botero showcases his enchantment with the circus, reliving the magic he felt as a boy during his first visit to the big top, in a new book “Circus: Paintings and Works on Paper.” Botero, best known for his paintin... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – A Jewish group accused Germany on Monday of moral complicity in concealment of stolen paintings after it emerged authorities failed for two years to report discovery of a trove of art seized by the Nazis, including works by Picasso and Matis... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – A vast trove of modern art seized under Germany’s Nazi regime, including works by Picasso, Matisse and Chagall, has been discovered in a Munich apartment among stacks of rotting groceries, German magazine Focus reported. The 1,500 art works,... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – EBay has removed from its listings around 30 items of memorabilia from the Nazi Holocaust, including clothes worn by concentration camp victims, after a newspaper investigation discovered they were on sale on the e-commerce website, Britain’... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – The director of Vienna’s Leopold Museum, home to extensive collections of work by Austrian artists such as Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, has quit in a row over Nazi-looted art. Tobias Natter said he could no longer stay at the museum after ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The corset and conical bra Madonna wore for her 1990 world tour will go on display at London’s Barbican Centre next year as part of an eclectic 2014 season. The lingerie will be in an exhibition of designs by Jean-Paul Gaultier, who created ... More »
ROME (Reuters) – A rarely seen Neapolitan collection of sumptuous jewellery, hidden away for centuries and estimated to be more valuable than England’s crown jewels, opened in Rome on Tuesday. The “Treasure of San Gennaro”, precious objects donated in tribute ... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – Parents worried about letting their children go trick-or-treating at Halloween can download new apps that track kids and send alerts when they venture outside designated safe areas. With the free iPhone app Track n Treat, children send a ti... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – An estimated $1.3 million worth of art from more than 130 artists, mostly from Syria and Lebanon, is being auctioned at below-gallery prices in Beirut to raise money for Syrian refugee children. “This is first time that you have so many arti... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – In a small park on the edge of old Istanbul’s Eminonu square, women sit begging, Syrian passports in their outstretched hands, “Please help in the name of God” on sheets of paper at their feet. In this bustling city, where fisherman line t... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko denied any guilt as he went on trial on Tuesday over an acid attack that nearly blinded the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Dmitrichenko, 29, was led into a Moscow courtroom in handcuffs to face tri... More »
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican officially declared its intention to defeat the Church of England on Tuesday – not in a theological re-match nearly 500 years after they split, but on the cricket pitch. The challenge was launched at the baptism of the St. ... More »
NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) – Wedding bells rang for the first time for same-sex couples in New Jersey just after midnight on Monday when the state became the 14th in the nation to legalize gay marriage. Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat due to leave offic... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China will allow satellite television stations to buy the right to broadcast only one foreign program each year from 2014 as part of new restrictions to push “morality-building” and educational shows, state media reported on Monday. The of... More »
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Ed Terebus was an 18-year-old high school student when he and his big brother Jim, a laid-off auto worker, decided to build their first haunted house 34 years ago. The Terebus brothers charged visitors $1.50 per head to tour their crea... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A violin that was being played as the Titanic went down was sold for 900,000 pounds ($1.46 million) at auction on Saturday, a record price for memorabilia from the doomed ocean liner. Band leader Wallace Hartley played the instrument, trying... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A first-ever walking, talking “bionic man” built entirely out of synthetic body parts made his Washington debut on Thursday. The robot with a human face unveiled at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum was built by London’s Sh... More »
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis held crisis talks on Thursday on the fate of Germany’s “luxury bishop” who is under intense pressure to resign for spending some 31 million euros ($42 million) on an ultra-luxurious residence. The pope, who has tried to se... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The Frieze Art Fair got smaller in 2013, but industry insiders said that would make it no less important for international players who flock to London every October to see cutting-edge contemporary works. The world’s largest art fair combine... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A triptych by British post-war painter Francis Bacon and works by pop master Andy Warhol will provide a health test for the global art market when they go on sale in New York next month. Auction house Christie’s suspects Bacon’s “Three Studi... More »
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) – A Malaysian court ruled on Monday that a Christian newspaper may not use the word “Allah” to refer to God, a landmark decision on an issue that has fanned religious tension and raised questions over minority rights in the mainly... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Police conducting a global search for Madeleine McCann, the British girl who disappeared in 2007, have come up with a new version of events surrounding her suspected abduction and want to question one unidentified man in particular. McCann, ... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Three U.S. scientists won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for pioneering work on computer programs that simulate complex chemical processes and have revolutionized research in areas from drugs to solar energy. The Royal Swedish Aca... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Silvio Berlusconi lived in chaos, taken advantage of by hangers-on and vastly overpaid for groceries, his girlfriend said in the latest interview about her relationship with the politician 49 years her senior. As the political fortunes of the ... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Three U.S. scientists won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for pioneering work on computer programs that simulate complex chemical processes and have revolutionized research in areas from drugs to solar energy. The Royal Swedish Aca... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Britain’s Peter Higgs and Francois Englert of Belgium won the Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle that explains how elementary matter attained the mass to form stars and planets. The... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – With the Higgs boson in the bag, the head of the CERN research center urged scientists on Tuesday to push on to unveil the “dark universe” – the hidden stuff that makes up 95 per cent of the cosmos and is still a mystery to earthbound resear... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Here is a look at the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics, which was awarded jointly on Tuesday to Peter Higgs, a British physicist who proposed the existence of the boson nearly 50 years ago, and Belgium’s Francois Englert: – The award to Higgs an... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – Lucian Freud did not live to see the first exhibition of his paintings in Vienna, the city his grandfather Sigmund fled in 1938, but he helped plan the retrospective that opens this week. Freud, considered the greatest British painter of his... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Three U.S.-based scientists won the Nobel medicine prize on Monday for plotting how vital materials such as hormones and brain chemicals are transported within cells and secreted to act on the body, giving insight into diseases such as di... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A Pakistani teenage activist shot by the Taliban and a Japanese author who writes about alienation and a fractured modern world are tipped as Nobel Prize winners ahead of the annual awards that start on Monday. Malala Yousafzai, 16, shot ... More »
ATLANTA (Reuters) – Siri, whose voice do you have? The question has intrigued millions of Apple iPhone and iPad fans, who use the devices’ voice-activated personal assistant for help with everything from finding restaurants and directions to organizing their d... More »
PASCAGOULA, Mississippi (Reuters) – As Americans across the nation begin to find out what Obamacare has in store for them, many of Mississippi’s most needy will find out the answer is nothing. That is likely the case for William and Leslie Johnson of Jackson C... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. retail sales should rise 3.9 percent this holiday season, outpacing last year’s gains, though economic concerns may impact shoppers’ spending, the world’s largest retail trade association said on Thursday. The National Retail Federation expect... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Los Angeles jury cleared concert promoter AEG Live of liability on Wednesday in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Michael Jackson, in a trial that offered a glimpse into the private life and final days of the so-called... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A model for the cubist sculpture that Pablo Picasso gave to the city of Chicago could fetch as much as $35 million when it is sold at auction next month – a record for a sculpture by the artist, Christie’s said on Wednesday. Picasso never v... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California Governor Jerry Brown signed a first-of-its-kind state law criminalizing what has become known as revenge porn, the distribution of private, explicit photos of other people on the Internet, usually by ex-lovers or spouses, to ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – While technical problems slowed the launch of new “Obamacare” websites to sell health insurance on Tuesday, the law’s supporters on Twitter had an easier time welcoming the “Affordable Care Cat.” Celebrities and community groups took to so... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A thief was caught not so much red-handed as green-faced in London after breaking into a car in that sprayed him with a liquid that glows emerald under ultraviolet light. Yafet Askale, 28, denied entering the vehicle that police set up with ... More »
ANAND, India, Sept 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Dressed in a green surgical gown and cap, British restaurateur Rekha Patel cradled her newborn daughter at the Akanksha clinic in northwestern India as her husband Daniel smiled warmly, peering in through a ... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Jang Chang-yoon was drunk and weepy one rainy night, troubled by debts from his divorce. On a dark impulse, the South Korean waiter bought a bottle of pesticide to end it all with a few toxic swigs. At the last minute, he changed his mind whe... More »
(Reuters) – Hold the fries, pass the salad. McDonald’s Corp on Thursday said it would offer healthy options as part of its popular value meals, letting customers choose a side salad, fruit or vegetables instead of french fries. The announcement by the world’s ... More »
(Reuters) – Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, were the official witnesses of a same-sex marriage between two women in Maine over the weekend, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The former first couple witnessed the private ceremony on Saturd... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – French-born painter Balthus is known for his street scenes and portraits, but it is his paintings of young girls, some with erotic undercurrents, that are the focus of the first exhibition of his works in New York in 30 years. “Balthus: Ca... More »
CAGLIARI, Sardinia (Reuters) – Pope Francis brought laughter to a crowd of young people on Sunday when he told them he was not “Tarzan” but gets his staying power during times of difficulty from his faith. Speaking off the cuff at the end of a trip to Sardinia... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – George Soros, the 83-year-old billionaire investor, philanthropist and supporter of liberal political causes, married for a third time on Saturday, tying the knot with education consultant Tamiko Bolton. Soros and Bolton, 42, exchanged vow... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – George Soros, the 83-year-old billionaire investor, philanthropist and active supporter of liberal political causes, married health care and education consultant Tamiko Bolton on Saturday afternoon. Soros and Bolton, 42, exchanged vows in ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – George Soros, the 83-year-old billionaire investor, philanthropist and active supporter of liberal political causes, is set to marry health care and education consultant Tamiko Bolton on Saturday at his estate near New York City. Three day... More »
MILAN (Reuters) – Italian fashion house Prada sent models down the runway in military-inspired khaki dresses topped with bejewelled bras, while Roberto Cavalli showed a riot of neon and mismatched prints on Thursday during Milan’s biannual women’s fashion week... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – German actor Daniel Bruhl will be a fixture in U.S. movie theaters this fall with leading roles in two major releases – auto racing rivalry tale “Rush” and the WikiLeaks drama “The Fifth Estate.” In director Ron Howard’s “Rush,” the 35-... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Belgian painter Rene Magritte’s work, featuring men in bowler hats, mysterious landscapes and bright blue skies, may be familiar to many art lovers, but a new exhibition focuses attention on the artist’s surrealist pieces. “Magritte: The M... More »
(Reuters) – Will Obamacare’s launch look more like Black Friday, when U.S. shoppers flood retail stores for bargains the day after Thanksgiving, or April 15, when procrastinators wait until nearly midnight to file their taxes? Officials involved in implementin... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British cosmologist Stephen Hawking has backed the right for people who are terminally ill to choose to end their lives and to receive help to do so as long as safeguards are in place. The wheelchair-bound Hawking was diagnosed with motor ne... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Minerva Schools of KGI doesn’t yet have accreditation, a campus or even a full faculty roster, but it is offering something even Harvard can’t – four years of free tuition for its first matriculating class. The San Francisco-based Min... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – An influential Communist Party journal on Monday decried online speech critical of the ruling Communist Party and government, comparing Internet rumors to denunciation posters during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. “There are some who mak... More »
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) – Nina Davuluri won the 2014 Miss America pageant on Sunday, becoming the first Indian-American to wear the crown, which went to Miss New York for the second year in a row. “I’m so happy this organization has celebrated dive... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – It would be the envy of forgers: a technology that can mint near-perfect reproductions of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings at a rate of three a day, with differences only experts can detect. So far, five of the Dutch painter’s best-known work... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Liu Bolin, the Chinese artist known as “the invisible man” for using painted-on camouflage to blend into the backdrops of his photographs, has done it again by making himself and 22 others “disappear” into the red seats of a Beijing theatre... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Fashion Week drew to a close on Thursday with prim, 1960s-inspired looks from Ralph Lauren and ragamuffin chic from Calvin Klein. Among the last of hundreds of fashion shows that filled the week, the trend-setting Lauren went rele... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The artistic director of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet is returning to Moscow from Germany following eight months and 22 operations on his eyes and face after an acid attack that nearly blinded him, the theatre’s spokeswoman said. Sergei Filin wil... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Designers from the celebrity world put modern touches to classics on the runways on Wednesday as New York Fashion Week was drawing to a close. Michael Kors brought the pin-up model look up to date with pleats and fur, while Hollywood styli... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – More than 40 works by pop artist Andy Warhol will be displayed at an exhibition hosted by the auction house Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, with the most expensive piece valued at about $1 million. The collection, “From Warhol, With Love,” focuse... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad vigorously defended on Tuesday her record-breaking, 110-mile (177-km) swim from Cuba to southern Florida after skeptics raised questions about the grueling trek. “I swam … in squeaky-clean, ethical fas... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Soft, billowing fabrics in muted colors with bursts of yellow, cobalt blue, black and red dominated the runways on Tuesday at New York Fashion Week as designers showing their spring/summer 2014 collections looked back to earlier, elegant e... More »
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – The suspected Romanian ringleader in the theft of seven paintings, including a Picasso and a Monet, from a Dutch museum will only disclose their whereabouts if his trial is moved to the Netherlands, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Radu Dogaru... More »
SINGAPORE/BANGKOK (Reuters) – Faced with rising living costs and unable to wait until pay day, growing numbers of Southeast Asians are putting their gold jewelry and designer watches in hock, creating a boom in pawnshops across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand an... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – In designer-obsessed Hong Kong, keeping up appearances can be hard on the pocketbook. One company has an answer: cash-strapped shoppers can get money quickly by pawning their Gucci, Chanel, Hermès or Louis Vuitton luxury handbags. Yes Lad... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Diana Nyad became the first person to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, baby boomer-aged fitness experts greeted the 64-year-old’s achievement with pride and delight but not disbelief. The aging body, they ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – It would never have been allowed on the table in the home of Peking duck, but at least a giant rubber duck gracing a Beijing park will now have the taut, crisp skin required of its culinary peer after an urgent injection of air. The 18-metr... More »
DAEJEON, South Korea (Reuters) – With a click on a smartphone, the experimental “Armadillo-T” electric car made in South Korea will park itself and fold nearly in half, freeing up space in crowded cities. The quirky two-seater, named after the animal whose she... More »
JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) – Mississippi hunters smashed back-to-back records on the opening weekend of the state’s 10-day alligator season by bagging some of the biggest critters on the books. Within hours of the August 30 opener, one hunting party caught... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Byun Mi-kyong sat quietly with her hands in her lap as she listened closely to every word the fortune-teller said about her daughter’s chances of getting into the right university. Dealing with intensely competitive college entrance exams has... More »
MIAMI (Reuters) – American long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad had passed the three-quarter mark on her swim across the Florida Straits on Monday, attempting to become the first person to swim from Cuba without a shark cage. Nyad, 64, was “swimming strongly” more... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The average height of European men grew by a surprising 11 centimeters from the early 1870s to 1980, reflecting significant improvements in health across the region, according to new research published on Monday. Contrary to expectations, th... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British broadcaster David Frost, a master of the television interview, famed for coaxing an apology for Watergate from Richard Nixon, has died suddenly, his family said on Sunday. Aged 74, he had a heart attack late on Saturday aboard a luxu... More »
BUSHMILLS, Northern Ireland (Reuters) – One of the homes of Irish whiskey is fighting an economic downturn by investing in art projects to brighten up derelict shops and houses – an approach it says is boosting tourist numbers. The idea of cosmetically enhanci... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – All legally wed gay couples, no matter which state they live in, are entitled to the same U.S. federal tax benefits as married heterosexual couples, the Obama administration said on Thursday. The U.S. Treasury ruling, following a landmar... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hustler, cheater, robber, rogue. Gamblers who skip out on casino debts in Macau risk being branded with these monikers and having personal details made public by a website that says it has helped to recover 50 million yuan ($8 million) so... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Greeted by a press pack rather than prostitutes, the first customer to roll up to Switzerland’s sex drive-in on opening night took one lap of the facility before making a hasty exit. The second car, a family vehicle driven by a man in sungla... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – At a workshop in an old Hong Kong neighborhood, paper craftsman Ha Chung-kin uses delicate sheets of paper and sticks of bamboo to fashion a huge, expensive boat that will soon be consigned to the flames. The Hungry Ghosts festival that h... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Race in America has been a hot topic of debate this summer and Hollywood, as if on cue, has muscled its way into the conversation. This year is shaping up to be a big one in film for African American, black and civil rights themes, offe... More »
LIMA (Reuters) – In Peru, home to the spectacular Inca city of Machu Picchu and thousands of ancient ruins, archaeologists are turning to drones to speed up sluggish survey work and protect sites from squatters, builders and miners. Remote-controlled aircraft ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – With a camera meant to amuse her in her solitude and some famous friends, Julia Margaret Cameron managed to forge a body of work focused on Victorian portraiture that is still celebrated a century and a half later. “She was one of the grea... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – In the world of cyber fraud, a fake fan on Instagram can be worth five times more than a stolen credit card number. As social media has become increasingly influential in shaping reputations, hackers have used their computer skills to create... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Obesity levels among adults appear to be holding steady across the United States, adding to recent evidence that the growth rate for U.S. waistlines is slowing, according to an analysis released on Friday. But within the holding pattern ... More »
DALLAS (Reuters) – Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator who wore pink tennis shoes during a filibuster against tough new abortion restrictions, shows off her more glamorous side in the September issue of Vogue magazine. The magazine’s fall fashion extravaganza... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The long-tailed, orange-furred, big-eyed olinguito – said to resemble a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear – is the newest mammal and the first carnivore discovered in the Americas in 35 years, the Smithsonian Institution announc... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – China has steamed into the cruise industry with new terminals – along with big plans for more facilities and a luxury ship – to bring more foreign tourists ashore and capitalize on domestic travelers wanting to sail the high seas. But ind... More »
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romanians on trial accused of stealing paintings worth tens of millions, including works by Picasso and Monet, have denied burning the artworks and are willing to give them back if a deal can be struck, their lawyers said on Tuesday. The ... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Xu Jiajie has gone on countless blind dates and to numerous match-making events over the past five years in search of a husband. At 31, the baby-faced office worker from Shanghai is under enormous pressure from family and friends to get ma... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – The owner of a luxury goods shop in Zurich has denied that racism was involved when Oprah Winfrey was discouraged from buying a 35,000 Swiss franc ($38,100) handbag. The U.S. talk show host, recently named the world’s most powerful celebrity... More »
FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) – Researchers opened a centuries-old Florence tomb on Friday in a search for remains that could confirm the identity of the woman whose enigmatic smile Leonardo da Vinci immortalized in the “Mona Lisa”, one of the world’s most famous ... More »
