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Graffiti Star's Invisible Secret Found 24 Years after Death

Experts at London's Sotheby's auction house on Tuesday revealed they had discovered an invisible ink signature made by U.S. graffiti icon Jean-Michel Basquiat on his painting "Orange Sports Figure".

The work will be the top lot in Wednesday's Contemporary Art Evening Sale and had been expected to sell for £3-4 million ($4.7-6.2 million, 3.6-4.8 million euros). But it could now fetch more after the chance discovery which occurred when it was viewed under ultraviolet light.

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Massive Spain Coin Collection in New York Auction

A collection of 37,895 Spanish coins including rare examples from the 15th century went on display Tuesday in New York for an auction organized by Sotheby's next month.

The collection includes coins from antiquity through modern era and feature the only remaining example of Europe's most famous coin, called 50 Excelentes, commissioned by the 15th century monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella as gifts.

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Danish-Arab Urban Arts Festival: A Unified Platform of Cultural Expression

The Danish-Arab Urban Arts Festival will seek to gather young underground artists from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Denmark, providing them with a creative and unified platform through which the community and creativity can interconnect.

Through the promotion of dialogue among cultures, the festival aims to strengthen mutual understanding and tolerance, ultimately contributing to a culture of peaceful coexistence in an open and democratic society.

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Snow Damages Colosseum, Medieval Churches in Italy

Heavy snow has caused extensive damage to the mediaeval walled town of Urbino and further deteriorated the Colosseum in Rome, already badly in need of repair, Italian newspapers reported Tuesday.

Partial collapses have been reported at the convents of San Francesco and San Bernardino in Urbino and the roof of the Church of the Capuchins outside the town center has completely caved in, La Repubblica reported.

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'Wax Museum' Offers Window to Iraq's Past

Baghdad's version of a wax museum features figures who depict Iraq's past, rather than replicas of celebrities like Michael Jackson, offering a distinctly different experience from Madame Tussauds.

Eschewing the Western model, Baghdadi Museum provides a window into a time before Saddam Hussein, the eight-year war with Iran, the invasion of Kuwait and subsequent sanctions, and the 2003 US-led invasion and its aftermath.

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Valentine's Day Finds a Niche in Islamic Iran

Iran may reject Western influences, but Valentine's Day has become a growing phenomenon thanks to the romantically minded youth of the Islamic state's affluent classes.

Although the ruling clerics and hardline politicians have been waging a campaign against what they call "decadent" cultural imports, the Christian day dedicated to amorous displays has so far survived.

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Biblical Park to Go Ahead in Jerusalem Arab Neighbourhood

An Israeli planning commission has approved the controversial construction of a Jewish biblical park in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem, the interior ministry said on Monday.

A statement said that the planning and construction commission ofJerusalem gave the go ahead for the establishment of a 5,000 square meter tourist complex in Silwan, a move that will likely further raise tensions in the flashpoint neighborhood.

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Films Show How 'Freaks' of East Germany Found Freedom

In the suffocating atmosphere that was East Germany, a whole range of misfits managed to find air to breathe and now, two decades after the Berlin Wall's fall, new films are putting communism's "freaks" in focus.

Screening at the Berlin film festival, "This Ain't California" and "Among Men - Gay in East Germany" look at underground skater culture and homosexuality and the drive for individual freedom against rampant repression.

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Philippine Swordsmith as Hollywood Touch

Filomeno de Guzman does not know Sparta from medieval Scotland, but the Philippine sword smith is an expert at replicating ancient warriors' tools for killing each other.

A stubby ex-military sergeant who has never set foot abroad, de Guzman and 15 rice farmer-neighbors who moonlight as blacksmiths craft old truck leaf springs into things of terrible beauty.

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All That Glitters: London Metal Thieves Target Works of Art

Gangs of metal thieves are targeting London's sculptures, statues and even war memorials, stripping them from their plinths and melting them down for their scrap value as commodity prices soar.

Thieves have been plundering pipes and cables for months, but police are increasingly concerned that they are turning their attention to valuable works of art.

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