Arts
Stunning photos show red kites going head-to-head in mid-air tussle
These breathtaking photos show two red kites going head-to-head in a mid-air tussle. The birds of prey were captured more than 50 ft in the air as they squabbled over their next meal. The pair swooped through the skies over Dumfries, Scotland, fighting each other for the piece of food. Wildlife photographer Nigel Robinson captured the moment while on holiday with his family. Nigel, 58, said: "One of the kites had got a piece of food and they were playing...
The Snowman returns to London for the 20th consecutive year
The Snowman returns to London's West End tonight for its 20th consecutive year. With a magical mix of exquisite dancing and live music – including Walking in the Air – friendship is kindled as the boy and his snowman embark on a starry-skied adventure to the North Pole, where they meet dancing penguins, reindeer, Father Christmas, Ice Princess, and escape the clutches of Jack Frost. Based on the book by Raymond Briggs and the film directed by Dianne Jackson and produced by John Coates, The Snowman is a much-loved festive tradition of storytelling, spectacle and magic. The Birmingham Repertory Theatre production has music...
Sir Winston Churchill’s Final Painting Sells For Staggering £357K
Sir Winston Churchill's final piece of artwork yesterday (Tues) smashed its auction estimate by selling for a staggering £357,000. The wartime leader painted 'The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell' in 1962 - three years before his death. He was in his late eighties and his abstract painting depicts the beloved goldfish pool in the garden of the family home at Chartwell, Kent. Churchill gave the painting, described as "a unique and moving insight into his final years", to bodyguard Sergeant Edmund...
New report highlights art world sexism
A new report published today has revealed shocking gender disparities in the art world in terms of valuations and earnings. The research reveals that in the high-end art world, just one of the top 100 lots sold at auction in 2015 was by a woman, and none of the top ten richest living artists are women. By contrast, women on Artfinder sell nearly 40 per cent more art, sell their work 16 per cent faster and for every £1 million...
Ego on Display at East London’s Exhibition Collective
Since 2013 London’s Exhibition Collective has been nurturing East London’s artistic community with regular workshops and annual themed shows yet 2017 is set to be its most accomplished year yet. Established by a small group of creative friends living in Stoke Newington, the EXC has since grown into a fourteen strong group of emerging artists working in a variety of forms including collage, pen and ink, photography, paint, pottery and needlework. The group will open their four-day exhibit on the...
Last Da Vinci in private hands sells for record $450 MILLION
After stops in London and other global cities for viewings, a painting believed to be by Leonardo da Vinci has sold at auction in New York for a record $450 million. The painting, Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World), is among fewer than 20 by the Renaissance painter who lived over 500 years ago that are still in existence and the only one that was privately owned. All others are in museums and art galleries around the globe. "On a...
Copy of first atlas of England and Wales sells for more than £100,000
A rare copy of the first ever atlas of England and Wales has sold for more than £100,000 at auction. Christopher Saxton was a Yorkshire-born surveyor who is known as the ‘father of English cartography’. And in the 1570s he spent seven years travelling around England and Wales for Thomas Seckford, who was the master of requests to Queen Elizabeth. His maps were engraved and printed between 1574 and 1578 and were first issued in atlas form in 1579. This...
Very rare copy of the first map to name America has emerged
An extraordinarily rare copy of the first map to name America has emerged - and it is expected to sell for almost £1 MILLION. The 1507 map, by Martin Waldseemüller, is being described as a "significant cartographic discovery". It names American for the first time and is also the first map to illustrate separate South and North American continent. The map, by the most important cartographer of the early 16th century, is one of five copies in existence and was...
Stunning pictures of Northern Lights bursting alive with colour
Bursting with colour in the night, these aren't fireworks but aurora lighting up the northern skies. These amazing pictures of the northern lights were taken by astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado in Greenland, Iceland and Finland. He said: "Auroras are one of the most spectacular natural phenomena that can be seen. Bursting with colour in the night, these aren't fireworks but aurora lighting up the northern skies. "They are global spectacles, in the sense that they can cover the whole visible...