Australia announced the return of three ancient Indian artefacts: a trident of Goddess Bhadrakali, a Nandi idol, and a six-headed Kartikeya idol. This reciprocal gesture follows India's agreement to repatriate ancestral remains of an Australian First Nations individual.
Switzerland returns 18 Benin Bronzes, a bronze bracelet, and four Ikom monoliths to Nigeria, marking a significant restitution of colonial-era looted artefacts to the country.
A culinary and cultural journey through Mexico City explores Frida Kahlo's enduring impact, from a themed feast to her iconic Casa Azul home and studios, highlighting her art, resilience, and influence on contemporary issues.
Pelé's iconic blue No 10 shirt from the 1958 World Cup final, worn when he was 17 and scored two goals in Brazil's first World Cup win, is up for auction at Sotheby's in New York. It's expected to sell for over $6m, potentially becoming one of the most expensive football artefacts ever.
Kirsty Geddes, a 37-year-old marketing and communications manager, discovered a 1940s time capsule while renovating her top floor flat in Great King Street, Dumfries. Working with local joiner Jordan Walters, she uncovered artefacts including a 1942 fire extinguisher, newspapers from the week after D-Day, an empty tin of whole chicken in jelly, and an Armstrong and Dickie stout bottle. The finds also include cigarette packs, household cleaners, 'flit powder' insect repellent, and envelopes addressed to Mrs Latimer. Geddes hopes to trace the building's history by matching the envelope names with original hand-drawn title deeds.
Dr Ittai Gradel, the academic turned antiquities dealer who exposed the theft of around 2,000 artefacts from the British Museum, has died of cancer aged 61. Born in Haifa in 1965 to a British father and Danish mother, Gradel discovered the thefts in 2021 but was initially dismissed by museum management. He later helped recover over 360 items and was a key witness in the ongoing police investigation. The British Museum awarded him a rarely-presented medal shortly before his death.
Dr Ittai Gradel, the antiquities dealer who exposed the massive theft of artefacts from the British Museum, has died at 61. Despite his efforts to alert the museum in 2021, he passed away before seeing the conclusion of the ongoing police investigation.
This feature explores how the panda evolved from an overlooked creature in ancient Chinese folklore—known as 'white bears' in the Three Kingdoms era and believed to eat iron—into a national treasure and defining symbol of modern China. Palaeontological evidence shows panda fossils with butchery marks dating back 8-9 million years, while the earliest written records appear in the Book of Documents from the pre-Qin period.
