Sao Paulo, Latin America's financial hub, cements its status as the region's cultural mecca this weekend with the Eighth edition of its modern art fair that is attracting a growing foreign presence.

Officially known as SP-Arte, the country's biggest contemporary art fair is drawing a record 110 galleries, including 27 from abroad, at the Biennal pavilion designed by Brazilian star architect Oscar Niemeyer.

"The Slav Epic" by Alfons Mucha, a Czech Art Nouveau gem, went on display in Prague on Thursday, fulfilling the wish of the artist who spent 18 years on the series of paintings from 1910 to 1928.

The cycle of 20 allegories tracing the history of the Slavic people and inspired in part by mythology was unveiled at Prague palace where it was first exhibited in 1928, on the 10th anniversary of Czechoslovak independence.

The earliest known Mayan calendar has been found in an ancient house in Guatemala and it offers no hint that the world's end is imminent, researchers said Thursday.

Rather, the painted room in the residential complex at Xultun was likely the place where the town scribe kept records, scrawling computations on the walls in an effort to find "harmony between sky events and sacred rituals," said the study in the journal Science.

Glittering atop a succession of royal crowns, the 35-carat "Beau Sancy" diamond has been witness to 400 years of European history.

Now the jewel, passed down through the royalty of France, England, the Netherlands and Prussia, could leave its noble past behind when it is sold at auction in Geneva next week.

Some of the most famed Shiite clerics of modern times have gathered together in a modest room under a religious school in Najaf in central Iraq -- as wax figures, waiting to be put on display.

The 20 likenesses depicting people who studied, lived or were born in Najaf, most of them clerics, are arrayed around the walls of the carpeted room, with fans protecting them from the heat.

The Maxxi museum of contemporary art in Rome was placed under the special administration of Italy's culture ministry on Thursday, amid fears ballooning debts and funding cuts could force it to close.

A ministry press release said architect Antonia Pasqua Recchia has been appointed to take over the reins of the museum, which was designed by the Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid and opened its doors only two years ago.

The Dalai Lama will receive the 2012 Templeton Prize, one of the world's biggest monetary awards, in a ceremony at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London on May 14, organizers said Wednesday.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader will receive the £1.1 million ($1.8 million, 1.4 million euro) prize for his work in encouraging scientific research and harmony among religions.

Minister of Tourism Fadi Abboud issued decision no 168 exempting Lebanese from paying entrance fees to the National Museum and all archeological sites on the occasion of International Museum Day, the National News Agency said Thursday.

"On the occasion of International Museum Day and the 70th anniversary of the National Museum, all Lebanese shall be exempted of entrance fees to the National Museum on Friday the 18th of May and on Sunday the 27th,” the statement said.

A Francis Bacon painting of a man and his reflection brought in $44.9 million at Sotheby's in New York on Wednesday, capping a week of breathtaking sales in the luxury art market.

Bacon's "Figure Writing Reflected in a Mirror" was one of the three pillars at the Manhattan auction and had a pre-sale estimate of $30 million to $40 million.

Beirut Photo Exhibition is the first international photography fair in Lebanon that will be held in September 2012, and has thus urged all photographers to submit photographic works for the initial selection phase.

The photographers are required to send, before June 15th 2012, three photographic works (less than 3 years old) in color or black and white to artheum@gmail.com with first name, last name, bio, works description, & contact details.