The World Health Organization is the bookies' favorite to win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, though experts say Greta Thunberg or press freedom groups are also strong contenders. 

French lawmakers unanimously voted to return prized artefacts to Benin and Senegal more than a century after they were looted by colonial forces and hauled back to Paris to be displayed in museums.

The Paris Opera is looking at banning "blackface" in its ballets and operas after nearly a quarter of its staff called for a major shake-up of how it deals with race.

Iranian Marjane Satrapi is famous for her films and graphic novels, but it is her painting which keeps her sane, she told AFP.

The pandemic has forced museums to shift to digital platforms to survive.  

A Congolese who has lived in France for 20 years, Mwazulu Diyabanza belongs to a pan-African movement that is pressing France to return those artifacts and make reparations for acts of slavery.

Lebanese stained glass artist Maya Husseini had hoped to retire after decades spent designing colorful windows, but she has been flooded with work since the blast that ripped through Beirut.

Marie Curie, Mother Teresa and Malala are among the just five percent of women Nobel laureates. But women are also heavily underrepresented in the institutions that select the prizewinners each year.

London's Royal Opera House is to sell a 1970s painting by David Hockney as it seeks to raise cash to get through the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst crisis in its history.

Archaeologists in Egypt said they had found 59 well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins over recent weeks that were buried more than 2,500 years ago.

Breakthroughs in the field of health will be honored Monday when the 2020 Nobel season kicks off with the medicine prize, as the world battles the worst pandemic in a century.

The monument on Buzludzha Peak was dedicated to the glory of communism but since the collapse of that regime, it has fallen into disrepair.

After the spectacular announcement of a Botticelli portrait auction last week, art collectors are sure to be excited by Sotheby's latest masterpiece up for grabs -- a rare Rembrandt painting. 

Polish divers say they have found the wreck of a German World War Two ship which may help solve a decades-old mystery - the whereabouts of the Amber Room, an ornate chamber from a tsarist palace in Russia that was looted by the Nazis.

The French government agreed Thursday to hand back three looted paintings to the heirs of a Jewish collector who died in a German concentration camp.

Thailand's annual water buffalo racing festival ploughed ahead on Thursday despite coronavirus travel restrictions leaving the event with a fraction of its usual tourist crowds.

A South Korean institution decided to launch an exhibition called "A Museum for All, A Museum for Dogs".

Four of Britain's distinctive red postboxes have been painted black and gold and adorned with images by or of illustrious Black Britons, in a novel way of celebrating Black History Month.

Like many events and celebrations this year, the annual Batik Day is likely to be overshadowed by the pandemic. 

Argentine cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado, who created the beloved comic strip Mafalda, has died aged 88, his publisher announced Wednesday. 

The works are by an array of international artists, from throughout Southeast Asia, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Argentina and Australia.

Café culture has long been associated with life in France but in many countries, cafés are more than places to have a libation and socialize. They have been the birthplace of major iconic cultural works.

The pandemic is no match for Balinese artist Nyoman Erawan's restless mind and his incessant urge to explore new possibilities.

The British government has warned a number of cultural institutions that their public funding could be called into question should they remove statues or other objects that have become the focus of protests or complaints.

Prominent figures in the British arts including novelist Ian McEwan and playwright Sir Tom Stoppard have signed a letter denouncing "hate speech" against "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling over her comments on transgender rights.

The infrastructure in Indonesia is far from ideal for the development of art, says Indonesian art visionary Aan Andonowati, but that has not deterred her from doing what she can to create a bright future of art in the country.

Chuseok, which runs from Wednesday to Friday, is one of the two biggest festivals of the Korean year, and traditionally a time for family gatherings and ancestral rituals, with millions of people heading to their home towns and the countryside. But this year will be starkly different as authorities urge the public to stay home to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The French boy who was thrown from the roof of London's Tate Gallery more than a year ago can now stand unaided though he had yet to regain his balance.

In small tin sheds in a town outside Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, wooden looms are deftly operated by a group of men and women as huge garment factories churn out cheaper alternatives.

Fancy face masks and protective shields feature next to printed-out versions of paintings and graffiti, photographs, sculptures, music and video at a Prague exhibition of COVID-19 art created during the pandemic.