Masterpiece Story: Striding Lion from the Ishtar Gate
Striding Lion is a masterpiece of Mesopotamian art with monumental size and composition. It symbolizes the strength of King Nebuchadnezzar II and the...
James W Singer 24 July 2025
#looted art
Masterpiece Story: Kūka’ilimoku
Kūka’ilimoku is a masterpiece of Hawaiian art. It is an artistic icon of Hawai’i, Polynesia, and Oceania. With so little Oceanic art displayed...
James W Singer 29 June 2025
Masterpiece Story: Muisca Raft
The Muisca Raft is a masterpiece of Pre-Columbian art. It was created by the Muisca people who lived in a region of today’s Colombia. Muisca...
James W Singer 29 June 2025
Masterpiece Story: Bisj Pole by the Asmat People
Bisj Pole is a masterpiece of indigenous art from the Asmat people of Western New Guinea, Indonesia. The work is housed at the Musée du Quai...
James W Singer 29 June 2025
Masterpiece Story: Chambri People’s Ancestor Mask
Ancestor Mask is a masterpiece of Papua New Guinean art. It symbolizes a vanishing tribal lifestyle rarely seen outside of...
James W Singer 29 June 2025
Masterpiece Story: Le Quai Malaquais et l’Institut by Camille Pissarro
An Impressionist masterpiece—looted by the Nazis, hidden for decades in a vault in a Swiss bank, subject of a controversial restitution, and linked...
Javier Abel Miguel 16 June 2025
Masterpiece Story: Nike of Samothrace
Nike of Samothrace is the masterpiece of an unknown Hellenistic artist. While the artist’s story may be unknown, the statue’s story is as complex...
James W Singer 11 June 2025
Masterpiece Story: Queen Mother Idia of Benin
Africa is a beautiful continent filled with sweeping landscapes and mighty rivers. Its history is filled with great kingdoms and large empires. Its...
James W Singer 11 May 2025
How a Dutch Still Life Made Its Way Home After WWII
What happens to artworks and cultural treasures as a nation prepares for war? In the case of Jan van Huysum’s Vase of Flowers, the Dutch still...
Natalia Iacobelli 8 May 2025
The Story of Hitler’s Unrealized Art Museum in Linz
The Hitler’s Museum – originally in German called Das Führermuseum, was luckily an unrealized art museum within a cultural complex planned by...
Zuzanna Stańska 8 May 2025
Bruno Lohse—Art Dealer of the Third Reich
In 2007, the Zurich prosecutor’s office opened vault number 5 of the Zürcher Kantonalbank. But something felt off; the vault was huge, more like a...
Javier Abel Miguel 28 April 2025
The Most Outrageous Stories Behind Damaged Artworks
A few years ago, two Chinese women drove their Mercedes SUV into the Forbidden City in Beijing. That event created quite a controversy. The least you...
Michel Rutten 21 April 2025
