Latest Painting News

The 'Mona Lisa' will get its own room under a major renovation of the Louvre

Jan. 28, 2025 19:26 PM EST

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday that the “Mona Lisa” will get its own dedicated room inside the Louvre museum under a major renovation and expansion of the Paris landmark that will take up to a decade. The renovation project, branded “Louvre...

Former Florida art museum director involved in Basquiat forged painting probe has died

Jan. 22, 2025 14:13 PM EST

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Aaron De Groft, a former head of the Orlando Museum of Art who left the institution under a cloud in 2022 after it was raided by the FBI as part of an art fraud probe into more than two dozen forged Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings, has died. He was 59. De Groft...

South African retrospective exhibition honors the colorful work of artist Esther Mahlangu

Dec. 28, 2024 00:04 AM EST

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A boldly patterned BMW stands at the entrance of the Wits Arts Museum in the vibrant Johannesburg neighborhood of Braamfontein. Its bright geometric shapes are part of 89-year-old South African artist Esther Mahlangu ’s unmistakable style. The car is the...

Christopher Nolan’s next film is based on ‘The Odyssey’

Dec. 24, 2024 09:56 AM EST

Christopher Nolan is following his Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer” with a true epic: Homer’s “The Odyssey.” It will open in theaters on July 17, 2026, Universal Pictures said Monday. Details remain scarce, but the studio teased that it will be a “mythic action epic shot...

Movie Review: 'Nosferatu' evokes the days when vampires weren’t cute or sexy, just scary and thirsty

Dec. 23, 2024 14:42 PM EST

Oh, the weather outside is frightful. But don’t head to the multiplex to stay warm. Not if you’re seeing “Nosferatu,” anyway. Bring your hand warmers, toe warmers, heart warmers and soul warmers — this update of the 1922 silent vampire classic will chill you to the bone. ...

Greek police arrest 3 accused of faking and selling at auction scores of artworks

Dec. 06, 2024 11:46 AM EST

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Three people have been arrested in northern Greece on suspicion of systematically counterfeiting works by leading Greek artists and selling them as originals through an online auction house, police said Friday. A police statement said the arrests were carried...

Kate Hamill delivers a 'feminist primal scream' with her new play 'The Light and the Dark'

Dec. 05, 2024 12:13 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — The inspiration for Kate Hamill's latest play came from across centuries and the planet. The actor-playwright was honeymooning in Italy in 2020 when she walked into the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and spotted a painting by pioneering Baroque painter Artemisia...

Experts believe study of 700-year-old handwriting unveils leading Byzantine painter's true identity

Dec. 05, 2024 06:09 AM EST

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Crime-solving techniques applied to a medieval illuminated manuscript in Paris may have solved a centuries-old puzzle — the true identity of a leading Byzantine painter who injected humanity into the rigid sanctity of Orthodox religious art. A...

Ethnic Slovak naïve paintings from Serbia join UNESCO's list of cultural heritage

Dec. 05, 2024 00:32 AM EST

KOVACICA, Serbia (AP) — Nearly a century ago, two farmers in an ethnic Slovak village in northern Serbia started painting to pass the time during the long winter months. This week, their art is being inscribed on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list. The farmers' paintings...

Iran's vast collection of Western art, much long hidden, re-emerges despite high tensions with US

Nov. 22, 2024 04:14 AM EST

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — As Iran faces increasing tensions with the West and turmoil at home, a new exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is displaying Western artwork including pieces not seen by the public in at least a decade. The unveiling of the exhibition “Eye to...