Visual arts

Golden tip fixed atop Paris obelisk

Though few onlookers have ever noticed, the famed golden-topped obelisk at the center of Place de la Concorde in Paris has stood without a tip for nearly 200 years - until June 20.

In a ceremony attended by VIPs, a trainee craftworker showed no signs of vertigo as she placed a new gold-plated point atop the 3,000-year-old monument, which was gift to France from Egypt in 1830.

High art becomes body art at Rembrandt House Museum

Henk Schiffmaker's needle whirrs as he tattoos the familiar lines of an elephant on Lilian Rachmaran's back.

"Highbrow to lowbrow" is how the famous Dutch tattoo artist describes his latest project, inking sketches by Rembrandt van Rijn onto the skin of visitors to the building the Golden Age master once called home. Or call it high art to body art.

Rembrandt’s self-portrait ‘on display’

A Rembrandt self-portrait bought from the Rothschild family with 150 million euros ($162 million) of Dutch state cash went on display at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum on June 15.

The Netherlands agreed to buy "The Standard-Bearer" with public money in 2022, after Paris cleared its sale despite the painting being considered as a "national treasure" in France.

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