How a taped banana questioned the meaning of art
Credit: PA
No, it's not quite what we expected either, but Carla Passino's piece at the very end of last year kept people musing throughout 2020.
The story of the cottage featured in Constable’s The Hay Wain
Credit: Alamy
Kate Green took a look at the village of Flatford, which provided the inspiration for the classic depiction of rural life.
The incomparable photography of Helmut Newton
Toby Keel looked at a glittering career that blurred the lines between fashion, photography and art.
The forgotten masterpieces of Fabergé
Credit: Tessa Hallmann / Brighton and Hove Museum
A chance glimpse of purple and gold in a crowded cabinet led to an extraordinary discovery by Geoffrey Munn.
How the belt of a goddess revealed the true colours of the Parthenon marbles
Credit: Getty
A mixture of research, original thought and a few gambles completely changed the academic community's perception of some of the world's greatest treasures, as Alexandra Fraser explained.
David Hockney's years-long mission to ‘photograph the unphotographable'
Lilias Wigan looked at an exhibition of the artist's mission to create art that captures the natural wonder that is the Grand Canyon.
How Spode went from local ceramics manufacturer to global fame and household name
Credit: Spode Museum Trust, Spode Society and Transferware Collectors Club
This year, Spode celebrated its 250th anniversary. Matthew Dennison told the story of how this English ceramics manufacturer, still based in the Potteries.
The scandalous child of Empire, the murderous photographer and the woman who fatally brought them together
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Eadweard Muybridge was not only the pioneering photographer of motion, but also a murderer. Jason Goodwin told the tale of the dashing rogue and adventurer who became his victim.
Piranesi, the architect, artist and engraver whose fantasy buildings won him 300 years of fame
In the 300th anniversary year of Piranesi’s birth, Huon Mallalieu celebrated the architectural fantasies of one of the most widely recognised names in 18th-century Italian art: Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
My Favourite Painting: Jenni Murray
Credit: Alamy
The journalist and broadcaster Jenni Murray talked about a painting that she described as 'the first illustration of #MeToo'.
In Focus: The wartime masterpieces of Alfred Munnings
Huon Mallalieu welcomes the opportunity to see a significant body of wartime paintings alongside other works by Munnings in his
The Tamar Valley AONB: Mines, otters and the ghost of a 'black widow' who roams the moors in a carriage of bones
Kate Green focuses on the Tamar Valley AONB.
In Focus: The Spanish painter whose visceral depictions of martyrdom still have the power to shock
The unflinching representations of brutality in Jusepe de Ribera's images of martyrdom is the focus of a new exhibition, the
In Focus: How the violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti is changing the way we teach music
The violinist Nicola Benedetti speaks to Claire Jackson about virtual teaching, playing Elgar and lobbying the government.
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'Love, desire, faith, passion, intimacy, God, spiritual consciousness, curiosity and adventure': The world of Stanley Spencer, a very English visionaryStanley Spencer’s talent for seeing the spiritual in the everyday, his stirring sense for the wonder of Nature and his love for the landscapes of Berkshire and Suffolk shaped his art, as Matthew Dennison reveals.
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Waldorf Astoria New York review: The Midtown hotel where Frank Sinatra once partied and the salad of the same name was invented emerges from a decade-long renovationOwen Holmes checks into the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel.
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'Love, desire, faith, passion, intimacy, God, spiritual consciousness, curiosity and adventure': The world of Stanley Spencer, a very English visionary
Stanley Spencer’s talent for seeing the spiritual in the everyday, his stirring sense for the wonder of Nature and his love for the landscapes of Berkshire and Suffolk shaped his art, as Matthew Dennison reveals.
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The tourbillon watch is a masterpiece of order born out of tumult and disarrayWhat is it that makes the tourbillon — one the most beguiling instruments in watchmaking — tick?
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What a report on the spending of female billionaires tells us about the future of museum collectionsBetween 2015 and 2024, the number of female billionaires grew from 190 to 344. Could this be good news for the art world?
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Items from the collection of Lady Glenconner are going under the hammer, including a nine-carat gold Cartier box gifted to her by Elizabeth II‘I have had such great pleasure living with these wonderful objects, each telling their own fascinating story.’
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What do women want (on wheels)?James Fisher gets to drive fast cars for a living, but are sleek lines and high horsepower quite the 'babe magnets' so many men think they are? On a quest to find the truth, he dared do the unthinkable.... which was to just ask them.
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Cheaper to steal than to buy: Napoleon's brooch sells for £4.4 million – 17 times its estimateNapoleon's one-of-a-kind brooch went under the hammer and vastly outstripped its pre-sale estimate.
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Savile Row might be the beating heart of bespoke men's tailoring, but it was named after a womanSavile Row is the home of the bespoke suit, but its history is a lot more colourful than you might expect.
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A painting owned by Edward Guinness is on display next to a near identical version at Kenwood House — but which one is the real Vermeer?A mini exhibition at Kenwood House allows viewers to ‘to practise their own connoisseurship’.
