This is Beirut - culture

Nigeria’s Bronze Masters Preserve Ancient Craft Amid Modern Pressures

This is Beirut, 14:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Nigeria Africa Craftsmanship Culture Art Heritage

Using long iron tongs, Victor Uinmwen Aduwe and Matthew Mathias pick a blazing pot from a fire and pour a thick golden liquid into a partly buried mold, using a centuries-old technique that still flourishes in Nigeria's south. After a short cooling period, the mold is dug up and opened, revealing three small bronze heads fashioned after an ancient ...

'El Sueño': Frida Kahlo Sets Historic Auction Record With Iconic Painting

This is Beirut, 12:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Painting Frida Kahlo Auction Art Culture NYC

A self-portrait by legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold for $54.66 million in New York on Thursday, setting a new record for the price of a painting by a woman, the auction house Sotheby's said. The sale of Kahlo's 1940 artwork, titled El sueño (La cama) — which translates to The Dream (The Bed) — breaks the previous record in this ...

Warner Music Enters Licensing Deal With AI Music Startup

This is Beirut, 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Music AI Warner Copyright Patent US Culture

Warner Music Group and AI startup Udio announced on Wednesday they have settled a US copyright lawsuit and struck a deal to cooperate on a licensed artificial intelligence music creation service. The landmark agreement resolves litigation between the major label and Udio, while establishing what the companies described as a "clear framework" for ...

‘Beggars Belief’: Londoners Baffled by Bizarre Christmas Mural

This is Beirut, 20/11 17:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Christmas AI Mural Britain Culture

People in London were left baffled Wednesday by what appeared to be a botched AI-generated Christmas mural showing a Santa-like figure with a half-orange beard and revelers with disfigured faces. The display in posh Kingston upon Thames in southwest London at first glance seems to depict a jolly crowd enjoying the festive season. But closer ...

Something for Moi? Miss Piggy’s Shoes Go Under the Hammer

This is Beirut, 20/11 15:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Entairtainment Auction Muppets US Culture Jim Henson

Some of Jim Henson's most memorable creations go under the hammer in California next week, with the first US auction of puppets and memorabilia from the late entertainer's decades-long career. Highlights include a pair of shoes worn by the domineering Miss Piggy in a "Muppets" movie, as well as puppets from "Fraggle Rock" and characters from the ...

Princess Diana enters Paris waxwork museum

This is Beirut, 20/11 12:30 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Royals Princess Diana Museum Grevin Britain France Culture

The Grevin waxwork museum in Paris unveiled a new star attraction on Thursday: Princess Diana in the "revenge dress" she wore after public revelations about her then-husband, Prince Charles's, infidelity. The Grevin Museum in central Paris, similar to Madame Tussauds in London, already has models of Charles, who is now King Charles III, and his ...

Fondation Cartier Unveils its Bold New Home at the Heart of Paris

Marie-Christine Tayah, 20/11 11:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Fondation Cartier Contemporary Art Paris Culture Exhibition Architecture

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is turning a page and stepping into a bold future as it leaves boulevard Raspail for 2, Place du Palais-Royal. Moving into the former Louvre des antiquaires—a Haussmann-era building revived by Jean Nouvel, who also designed its previous home—the Fondation embraces a transformed vision of what an ...

Klimt Portrait Achieves Historic Price in Record-Breaking Auction

This is Beirut, 19/11 19:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Klimt Painting Culture Art NYC Auction

A portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt fetched $236.4 million in New York on Tuesday, becoming the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. Six bidders battled for 20 minutes over the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, which Klimt painted between 1914 and 1916. The piece depicts the daughter of Klimt's main patron dressed in a white ...

Orbiting: The Subtle Dance Around the Other

David Sahyoun, 19/11 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Psychoanalysis Orbiting Social Media Culture Relationships

Drawing from the evolving grammar of digital interfaces, we encounter the neologism orbiting. It describes the behavior of someone who cuts off all direct contact - no messages, no invitations, no meetings - yet continues to “circle around” you. They watch your stories, like your posts, track your digital movements, and occasionally publicly ...

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Returns Two Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

This is Beirut, 19/11 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Arts Nigeria Culture Boston Museum Benin

The Museum of Fine Arts in the US city of Boston has returned two of the famed Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, authorities in the West African nation said late on Monday. The move represents "the return of a huge part of Nigeria's history," Olugbile Holloway, the head of Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), said. "As much as ...

'Below the Clouds': Gianfranco Rosi’s Meditative Portrait of Naples

This is Beirut, 18/11 17:40 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Film Gianfranco Rosi Italy Culture

If the regular recipe for success in the modern entertainment industry or on social media is being loud, attention-seeking, and a prolific creator of "content," Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi has carved out a career doing the exact opposite. The work of the award-winning documentary producer is everything our contemporary culture is not: slow, ...

'Demon Slayer' Film Shatters Historic Global Box Office Record

This is Beirut, 18/11 15:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Demon Slayer Cinema Culture Art

The latest film adaptation of the Demon Slayer manga franchise has become the first Japanese movie to gross more than 100 billion yen ($644 million) worldwide, its distributors said. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — Infinity Castle: Part 1, about sword-swishing Tanjiro Kamado's final showdown to slay demons and make his sister human again, is ...

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