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February 17, 2013 The exhibition, which opened on Feb. 17, 1913, at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City, became an important event in the history of American art. It introduced astonished New Yorkers to modern art, like Marcel Duchamp's cubist Nude Descending a Staircase.

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February 3, 2013 Vermeer's famous Girl With a Pearl Earring has returned to the United States for the first time since 1995. Very little is known about the painting, so in honor of the visit, The Guardian newspaper asked its readers to come up with a backstory for the mysterious girl.

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January 25, 2013 Meet the new Dutch master: Tjalf Sparnaay's food paintings are so gobsmacking in their level of detail, it's hard to resist the temptation to pick one up and take a bite.

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January 23, 2013 A Washington showcase of work by the Chinese dissident artist reveals his preoccupation with the tragic 2008 Sichuan earthquake: To create one of the pieces, Ai ran afoul of Chinese authorities, asking for help collecting the names of children who died when their schools collapsed.

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January 18, 2013 What do salt, ancient Jewish pickle carts, the sometimes brutal Indonesian spice trade and Vincent Van Gogh have in common? They brought life to Dutch cuisine, specifically, the Dutch pickle.

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January 12, 2013 The belle epoque was not particularly belle if you were poor and female — like the young girl who modeled for Edgar Degas' famous sculpture, The Little Dancer, Aged 14. A new novel by Cathy Marie Buchanan tells the story of that girl, ballet student Marie van Goethem.

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January 6, 2013 David Esterly's life was changed in the 1970s when he came across wood carvings done by Grinling Gibbons more than 300 years earlier. Esterly became a wood carver, and even re-created one of Gibbons' pieces that was destroyed in a fire.

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January 4, 2013 The "ghost gum" trees painted by Albert Namatjira became symbols of Australian identity and were soon to be put on the nation's historic register.

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December 11, 2012 If realist American painter Edward Hopper had wielded a camera rather than a brush, what would he have photographed?

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December 10, 2012 An exhibition of works by American realist Edward Hopper is drawing impressive crowds at the Grand Palais. Hopper is well-known in the U.S. for his pensive, lonely portraits of people sitting together yet alone. He's less well-known in France, but the exhibit has been a surprising success.

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November 3, 2012 Illustrator Ralph Steadman became known for his collaborations with "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson, but their partnership wasn't always easy. The documentary For No Good Reason looks at Steadman's life, art and relationship with the eccentric writer.

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October 21, 2012 Kermit Oliver works for the U.S. Postal Service. He's also the only American artist to ever design scarves for Hermès. As writer Jason Sheeler got to know Oliver, the story only got bigger.

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October 16, 2012 Seven works by famous artists were stolen by thieves who broke into the Rotterdam museum around 3 a.m. The thieves set off an alarm, but managed to escape before police arrived.

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