When professor Qian Nairong published his dictionary of the Shanghai dialect in 2007, he was in some ways documenting a dying language.

The number of people speaking the rapid-fire language -- a badge of identity for residents of China's commercial capital of more than 20 million people -- is shrinking.

Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," one of the world's most iconic paintings, is getting a full health check as it marks its 75th anniversary.

A giant robotic machine is taking tens of thousands of microscopic shots of the black-and-white anti-war masterpiece to allow experts to penetrate the work like never before and see its real condition after a hectic life traveling the globe.

Renowned Lebanese author Gibran Khalil Gibran’s best known fictional work The Prophet is being adapted for the big screen in a new production that will involve collaborations across many borders.

In this exciting adaptation, each of the 89-year old classic’s chapters will be directed by a different award-winning filmmaker, with Roger Allers (The Lion King) responsible for the connective through-line narrative.

Brazilian archeologists have discovered an ancient rock carving they say is at least 10,000 years old, making it the oldest human carving in the Americas.

The claim, detailed in an article in the online scientific journal PLoS ONE, opens the controversial debate over when and how humans populated the Americas.

The Smithsonian broke ground Wednesday along the National Mall in Washington for the only national museum dedicated exclusively to Americans of African heritage.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture -- due to open in 2015 -- will raise a stone's throw from the towering obelisk that honors George Washington, the slave-owning first president of the United States.

A version of "The Scream," one of the world's most famous paintings and an iconic image of despair, will go on sale this May in New York, where it is expected to fetch at least $80 million, Sotheby's auctioneers said.

Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend and patron of "Scream" painter Edvard Munch, owns the work, which will go on the block in New York on May 2, headlining the Impressionist and Modern Art sales.

New Zealand paused for two minutes' silence Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of the devastating Christchurch earthquake which left 185 people dead.

At 12:51 pm (2351 GMT Tuesday), the moment the 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand's second largest city and sent buildings crashing down onto lunchtime crowds, the nation fell quiet to honor the dead.

Spain's Prado Museum put the earliest known copy of the "Mona Lisa" on display Tuesday for the first time since restoration work revealed it was likely painted by one of Leonardo da Vinci's apprentices as he worked on the original.

Throughout the day, a crowd gathered around the painting, which shows the same woman the Italian artist painted, backed by a landscape of hills resembling those of the original masterpiece which hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Malaysia has banned a nearly 30-year-old sex education book written by a British author following complaints by Muslim activists that it is obscene.

The Home Ministry said Wednesday that Peter Mayle's "Where Did I Come From?" contains "elements that undermine societal morals and public interests."

Piled-up, forgotten and gathering dust, 23,000 artworks from the former East Germany fill a vast warehouse 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Berlin, testimony to an oppressive past.