During the 10 day battle for Abidjan, when violence in the Ivory Coast turned into civil war, Ivoran artist Aboudia remained in the city and hid in his basement studio, listening to the sound of gunfire. He went outside to see what was happening and then returned to paint. That was in March 2011.

The first major exhibition to focus on artist Kurt Schwitters' life in Britain following his escape from Nazi Germany opens this week.

One of her Desert Island Discs? A Tom Jones song she's never heard

A sparingly hung exhibition of portraits has lumpen duds among the star turns – for comparison, or because that's all the RA could get hold of?

Auction houses are adapting to online sales and the rise of the super-rich in Asia and the Middle East. Lucy Tobin reports

Given his patience and mastery of inner peace, the Dalai Lama has some of the attributes required to be an excellent test cricketer. 

The face that launched a thousand prints - Russian painter Vladimir Tretchikoff's instantly recognisable Chinese Girl - is up for sale.

A lawyer for three Romanians who are charged with stealing valuable paintings from a museum in the Netherlands last year says there is insufficient evidence to charge them.

It is the most-visited, the most written about and the most parodied work of art in the world but the ‘uncatchable smile’ that makes Leonard da Vinci’s Mona Lisa so special is not unique according to experts.

Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

John Napper's portrait was criticised for being a poor likeness of the young Elizabeth

Diamonds may be forever, but emeralds are for 2013. Trish Lorenz goes shopping for this year's interiors colour of choice

The Tate yesterday admitted that the major new exhibition of LS Lowry “needed to be done” after facing criticism for ignoring the artist’s work and legacy.

Nadav Kander was inspired by ideas of Elizabethan purity to create these stunning photographic portraits of six nude females and one male.