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Exterior of the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London, photographed in July 2013. On August 7, the museum agreed to return its collection of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, the country from which they were taken in the late 19th century. Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons, photo credit Looshluz. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

UK museum agrees to return looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

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Exterior of the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London, photographed in July 2013. On August 7, the museum agreed to return its collection of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, the country from which they were taken in the late 19th century. Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons, photo credit Looshluz. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Exterior of the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London, photographed in July 2013. On August 7, the museum agreed to return its collection of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, the country from which they were looted in the late 19th century. Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons, photo credit Looshluz. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

LONDON (AP) – A London museum agreed on August 7 to return a collection of Benin Bronzes looted in the late 19th century from what is now Nigeria as cultural institutions throughout Britain come under pressure to repatriate artifacts acquired during the colonial era. The Horniman Museum and Gardens in southeast London said that it would transfer a collection of 72 items to the Nigerian government. The decision comes after Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments formally asked for the artifacts to be returned earlier this year and following a consultation with community members, artists and schoolchildren in Nigeria and the U.K., the museum said.

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The Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, photographed in February 2010. Police in Rio seek the arrest of six people accused of involvement in the theft of 16 artworks worth more than $139 million, taken from the widow of an art dealer-collector. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Artyominc. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Brazil police recover art masterpieces worth $139M stolen from elderly widow

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The Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, photographed in February 2010. Police in Rio seek the arrest of six people accused of involvement in the theft of 16 artworks worth more than $139 million, taken from the widow of an art dealer-collector. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Artyominc. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, photographed in February 2010. Police in Rio seek the arrest of six people accused of involvement in the theft of 16 artworks worth more than $139 million, taken from the widow of an art dealer-collector. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Artyominc. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Police in Rio de Janeiro are seeking the arrest of six people accused of involvement in stealing 16 artworks together valued at more than 700 million reais, (roughly equivalent to $139 million), some of which were recovered. Police said in a statement that the group stole the works from an 82-year-old widow, who had been married to an art collector and dealer.

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Undated photo of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, one of the great treasures of the Louvre museum in Paris. A sophisticated cooling system helps protect the 16th-century oil on poplar wood painting from the ravages of heat. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Musee du Louvre. Wikimedia Commons regards this work as being in the public domain in the United States.

Why Louvre’s Mona Lisa keeps a smile: Paris’s cooling system

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Undated photo of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, one of the great treasures of the Louvre museum in Paris. A sophisticated cooling system helps protect the 16th-century oil on poplar wood painting from the ravages of heat. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Musee du Louvre. Wikimedia Commons regards this work as being in the public domain in the United States.

Undated photo of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the ‘Mona Lisa,’ one of the great treasures of the Louvre museum in Paris. A sophisticated cooling system helps protect the 16th-century oil on poplar wood painting from the ravages of heat. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Musee du Louvre. Wikimedia Commons regards this work as being in the public domain in the United States.

PARIS (AP) – The Mona Lisa may maintain her famously enigmatic smile because she benefits from one of Paris’s best-kept secrets: An underground cooling system that’s helped the Louvre cope with the sweltering heat that has broken temperature records across Europe.

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A memorial bronze bust of a king’s mother dating to the 16 th century, from the Benin Kingdom in what is now Nigeria, photographed on display at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in November 2014. Germany and Nigeria recently made an agreement for the European nation to return several Benin bronzes to Nigeria, but other countries have been less receptive to African requests for the return of their art and artifacts. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Daderot. Shared under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Africa sees some artifacts returned home but seeks far more

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A memorial bronze bust of a king’s mother dating to the 16 th century, from the Benin Kingdom in what is now Nigeria, photographed on display at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in November 2014. Germany and Nigeria recently made an agreement for the European nation to return several Benin bronzes to Nigeria, but other countries have been less receptive to African requests for the return of their art and artifacts. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Daderot. Shared under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

A memorial bronze bust of a king’s mother dating to the 16th century, from the Benin Kingdom in what is now Nigeria, photographed on display at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in November 2014. Germany and Nigeria recently made an agreement for Germany to return several Benin bronzes to Nigeria, but other European countries have been less receptive to African requests for the return of their art and artifacts. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Daderot. Shared under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – Apollo John Rwamparo speaks forlornly of the eight-legged stool, a symbol of authority for his ancient kingdom in Uganda, now glimpsed through a glass barrier at a museum thousands of miles away in Britain. The wooden stool is permanently exhibited at the University of Oxford, one of at least 279 objects there taken from Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom during the colonial era. Oxford has resisted attempts to have the stool repatriated, saying it was donated by a royal from a breakaway kingdom. “It’s quite frustrating,” said Rwamparo, a deputy prime minister and minister for tourism for the kingdom. “The best is for them to swallow their pride, like the French and the Germans have done, and return the artifacts.”

African countries’ efforts at restitution, after long resistance from authorities in Europe, are now blossoming with the return of treasured pieces that once were thought unattainable.

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A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card, graded 9.5, could sell for $10 million at auction in late August. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions, HA.com

Rare 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card going up for auction

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A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card, graded 9.5, could sell for $10 million at auction in late August. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions, HA.com

A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card, graded 9.5, could sell for $10 million at auction in late August. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions, HA.com

NEW YORK (AP) – A decades-old, mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card could break a record at auction.

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An October 2016 image of the Chauvin Sculpture Garden in Chauvin, Louisiana, created by self-taught artist Kenny Hill. Sometime between July 11 and July 15, vandals attacked artworks on site, breaking three and removing a fourth, causing an estimated $23,000 in damage. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Jon Evans. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Vandals hit Louisiana sculpture garden created by self-taught artist

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An October 2016 image of the Chauvin Sculpture Garden in Chauvin, Louisiana, created by self-taught artist Kenny Hill. Sometime between July 11 and July 15, vandals attacked artworks on site, breaking three and removing a fourth, causing an estimated $23,000 in damage. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Jon Evans. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

An October 2016 image of the Chauvin Sculpture Garden in Chauvin, Louisiana, created by self-taught artist Kenny Hill. Sometime between July 11 and July 15, vandals attacked artworks on site, breaking three and removing a fourth and causing an estimated $23,000 in damage. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Jon Evans. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

CHAUVIN, La. (AP) – Authorities in south-central Louisiana are looking for those responsible for vandalizing the Chauvin Sculpture Garden, a local landmark created by a self-taught artist. Three concrete sculptures were broken, and one is missing, said Gary LaFleur, head of the Center for Bayou Studies at Nicholls State University.

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Nichelle Nichols, shown speaking at the 2013 Phoenix Comicon in May 2013. The original ‘Star Trek’ cast member died July 30 at the age of 89. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Gage Skidmore. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In Memoriam: Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ 89

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Nichelle Nichols, shown speaking at the 2013 Phoenix Comicon in May 2013. The original ‘Star Trek’ cast member died July 30 at the age of 89. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Gage Skidmore. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Nichelle Nichols, shown speaking at the 2013 Phoenix Comicon in May 2013. The original ‘Star Trek’ cast member died July 30 at the age of 89. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Gage Skidmore. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

SILVER CITY, N.M. – Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek television series, has died at the age of 89.

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The Church of Christ Antiphonitis in Cyprus, photographed in June 2016. A centuries-old Orthodox icon that was looted from the church in or after 1974 was returned in a ceremony held July 12. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Shirazbustan. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

500-year-old icon looted from divided Cyprus repatriated

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The Church of Christ Antiphonitis in Cyprus, photographed in June 2016. A centuries-old Orthodox icon that was looted from the church in or after 1974 was returned in a ceremony held July 12. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Shirazbustan. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) – A 500-year-old Orthodox icon that was looted from a church in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus has been returned to the island. The icon of the Enthroned Christ, which Cyprus’ Antiquities Department dates to around the end of the 15th century to the early 16th century, was presented at a ceremony July 12 to the head of the island’s Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos.

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Sandro Botticelli’s masterpiece, ‘La Primavera (Spring),’ photographed in February 2011. On July 22, activists protesting climate change glued their hands to the glass covering the painting, which was unharmed. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit DcoetzeeBot. The work is in the public domain because it was published or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before January 1, 1927.

Protestors at Uffizi glue hands to glass protecting Botticelli’s ‘Spring’

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Sandro Botticelli’s masterpiece, ‘La Primavera (Spring),’ photographed in February 2011. On July 22, activists protesting climate change glued their hands to the glass covering the painting, which was unharmed. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit DcoetzeeBot. The work is in the public domain because it was published or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before January 1, 1927.

Sandro Botticelli’s masterpiece, ‘La Primavera (Spring),’ photographed in February 2011. On July 22, activists protesting climate change glued their hands to the glass covering the painting, which was unharmed. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit DcoetzeeBot. The work is in the public domain because it was published or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before January 1, 1927.

ROME (AP) – On July 22, Italian environmental activists glued their hands to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli’s painting Spring in the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, police said. The museum said thanks to the glass, which was installed as a precaution several years ago, the masterpiece was unharmed.

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Buzz Aldrin’s Apollo 11 inflight jacket soars to $2.7M

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The inflight coverall jacket Buzz Aldrin wore during the entirety of the Apollo 11 moon mission sold for $2.7 million on July 25 in New York. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s

The inflight coverall jacket Buzz Aldrin wore during the entirety of the Apollo 11 moon mission sold for $2.7 million on July 25 in New York. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s

NEW YORK – On July 25 at Sotheby’s, Buzz Aldrin’s Apollo 11 inflight coverall jacket, worn during the historic 1969 mission to the moon and back, achieved $2,772,500 – making it the most valuable American space-flown artifact ever sold at auction, and the most valuable jacket sold at auction. The exceptionally rare garment was chased by multiple bidders for almost 10 minutes before selling to a bidder on the phone.

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