In this era of Photoshop software and Instagram filters, should people recoil at the notion of photo manipulation?
Not at all, said the curator of a landmark exhibition on the topic that opened in Washington this week. After all, we've been living with altered images since photography was invented in the 19th century.
Full StoryChina's Internet users cried foul Thursday over the trial of an elderly man for an alleged murder decades ago during the political and social upheaval of the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong.
China has never publicly estimated how many died in the decade-long period, during which people turned on their neighbors. Half a million died in 1967 alone, according to British historian Roderick MacFarquhar.
Full StoryA Swedish artist who received death threats after depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog said Wednesday he would display new paintings of the prophet at an exhibition in the immigrant-heavy city of Malmoe later this year.
"It's important to continue because if you yield to the threats and back away, you have abandoned the democratic principle," Lars Vilks said.
Full StoryA Greek man proved inept at the art of thievery by swiping a Salvador Dali painting from a New York City gallery as security cameras rolled and, in a panic, later trying to send it back anonymously, authorities said Tuesday.
Phivos Istavrioglou also left fingerprints that helped detectives track him down — another misstep in a botched fine art caper that even he found foolish, according to an account of a confession contained in court papers.
Full StoryThe United States' National Pinball Museum is closing its doors after failing to agree on a new lease with its landlord, but it's holding out hope for a replay.
In a statement, the non-profit museum -- which relocated from Washington to Baltimore, Maryland in 2012 -- said it would shut down on March 3 and search for a new home for its exhibits.
Full StoryCanada's prime minister unveiled on Tuesday an office of religious freedom tasked with protecting and advocating on behalf of religious minorities under threat around the world.
Housed in Canada's foreign affairs ministry, the new office will oppose religious hatred and intolerance and promote pluralism "as a Canadian foreign policy priority," said a statement.
Full StoryLetters from John Lennon's killer detailing his obsession with the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" to the police officer who arrested him went on sale Monday through a Los Angeles auction house.
The four missives from Mark David Chapman to Stephen Spiro are for sale through Moments In Time, which specializes in historical documents and rare autographs, at a fixed price of $75,000, auction house owner Gary Zimet said. Zimet is selling the letters on behalf of Spiro, who arrested Chapman on Dec. 8, 1980, shortly after he shot Lennon outside The Dakota, the ex-Beatle's Manhattan apartment building.
Full StoryThese museum goers didn't just leave their outerwear at the coat check. They handed over their shirts, trousers, underwear — everything, except their shoes and socks.
The occasion Monday at Vienna's Leopold Museum was a special after-hour showing of "Nude Men from 1800 to Today" — an exhibit of 300 paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures focused on the bare male.
Full StoryThe bells of Pristina's sole Orthodox Church toll for a liturgy that will bring brief spiritual peace to a small group of Serbs, remaining members of a dwindling community in Kosovo, five years after it broke away from Serbia.
At the Saint Nicolas church, three elderly Serbs listen to the mass held in a little corridor along the nave, too big and too cold for so few people.
Full StoryAuthor Haruki Murakami's new novel will hit book stores in April, three years after the final installment of "1Q84", his Japanese publisher has said.
Publishing house Bungeishunju Ltd posted a small advert in newspapers on Saturday, which said only: "Haruki Murakami: Long awaited novel to arrive in April."
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