Oxford Botanic Garden has played a vital role in the evolution of plant science since it was founded 400 years ago
Painted in around 1625, the Penitent Mary Magdalene inspired a host of copies before disappearing. Now, it has resurfaced in a private collection
Will the glittering new arts complex bring about a ‘Bilbao effect’ in the southern French city?
Lucy and Catherine Madox Brown studied with their father and had close connections to the Pre-Raphaelites – but their achievements have been overlooked until now
Frustrated that memories of more hopeful times are fading, the artist Intissar Belaid is determined to preserve what she can
The spectacular cave monastery of Sabereebi in Georgia is full of frescoes as stunning as their rocky setting
Museum directors in France and Italy seem to agree that requiring proof of vaccination is preferable to being shut – although not everyone is on board
The legendary picture editor Bruce Bernard was famously modest about his own photography, but his portraits of Lucian Freud are peerless
After his failure in politics, Henri Cernuschi succeeded in finance – and left an outstanding collection of Asian art to his adoptive city of Paris
The artist plans to turn a dilapidated palace into a lively new cultural venue – and the city needs others to follow his example
Joseph Gandy’s dramatic paintings turned John Soane’s neoclassical designs into full-blown Romantic fantasies
Mass-produced majolica has often been sneered at – but its exuberance is what makes it so appealing
The Crown Jewels are what the castle is most famous for, but over the centuries it has housed everything from prisoners to military hardware
David Chipperfield’s cool, if costly, renovation plays to the gallery’s minimalist strengths
Colombia’s indigenous communities are toppling statues of the Spanish conquerors to highlight past and present injustices
The portraits of James Barnor, Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé conjure up an image of cool modernity – but also draw on a long photographic tradition
A pair of amateur fossil hunters have uncovered a section of Jurassic sea floor in a sleepy corner of England
These comforting songs are freighted with cultural and personal memories – and artists are working to preserve them
It may be an unassuming little shelter, but the beach hut tells of a British infatuation with property and propriety
Like the rarest works of art, white truffles from Alba are commodities in a mysterious, monied world
Raymond Erith adapted classical architecture for a modern age
Native American belts made of wampum shells have long fulfilled a diplomatic purpose – and as such are very much a living art
The novelist may be little read today, but his fiction inspired an enduring, Romantic vision of the past
The giant ferris wheel may now be part of the furniture – but the view from on high is still revolutionary
