France's Louvre museum, home to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, is putting the final touches to one of the biggest ever exhibitions of the Italian master's work with the presence of the world's most expensive painting agonizingly unresolved.

Andrea Gandini, a 22-year-old Roman sculptor, is making a growing name for himself by turning the Eternal City's dead tree stumps into much-admired pieces of art.

When Japan's youngest prince, Hisahito, visited Bhutan in August on his first overseas trip just months after his uncle Naruhito became emperor, his trip was regarded as the debut of a future monarch on the world stage.

British street artist Banksy is selling a Union Jack stab vest, riot helmet 'disco balls' and a 'designer handbag' made from a brick to randomly selected buyers who can answer the question: "Why does art matter?".

The Swedish Academy has defended its decision to award the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature to Austrian writer Peter Handke, saying he had made provocative comments but had not supported bloodshed.