Where do you begin in a city of this size? How about at the lively South Bank of the Thames, near Waterloo Station? Start with a spin on the London Eye, a colossal Ferris that will take you up 130 meters for an unmatched view of the city.
You'd love to go. Just think of the history, the beautiful artwork ... the things you could learn. But upon hearing the word "museum," your kids break into a chorus of "I'd rather die."
When I'm updating my guidebooks, one of my favorite places to visit is rollicking Amsterdam. This Dutch metropolis is ever changing -- and ever crowded with fun-loving sightseers.
British naturalist Charles Darwin shocked Victorian society when he suggested that humans evolved from animals over millions of years, and his theories still spark controversy.
Travelers to Italy need to be smart to avoid needless lines and expenses while enjoying its ever-popular treasures. Major sights in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan are evolving for 2009.
On the edge of Paris, on a site that once housed a decrepit municipal bowling alley, an opulent new museum is taking shape. Designed by Frank Gehry at a cost of more than $200 million, it is expected to be finished in two years, and will feature a giant auditorium and a permanent collection of modern and contemporary art, including works by Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Takashi Murakami, and Damien Hirst.
Where do you begin in a city of this size? How about at the lively South Bank of the Thames, near Waterloo Station? Start with a spin on the London Eye, a colossal Ferris that will take you up 130 meters for an unmatched view of the city.
You'd love to go. Just think of the history, the beautiful artwork ... the things you could learn. But upon hearing the word "museum," your kids break into a chorus of "I'd rather die."
When I'm updating my guidebooks, one of my favorite places to visit is rollicking Amsterdam. This Dutch metropolis is ever changing -- and ever crowded with fun-loving sightseers.
British naturalist Charles Darwin shocked Victorian society when he suggested that humans evolved from animals over millions of years, and his theories still spark controversy.
Travelers to Italy need to be smart to avoid needless lines and expenses while enjoying its ever-popular treasures. Major sights in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan are evolving for 2009.
On the edge of Paris, on a site that once housed a decrepit municipal bowling alley, an opulent new museum is taking shape. Designed by Frank Gehry at a cost of more than $200 million, it is expected to be finished in two years, and will feature a giant auditorium and a permanent collection of modern and contemporary art, including works by Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Takashi Murakami, and Damien Hirst.
Tokyo may not be traditionally beautiful and it has few historic sights, but it is undeniably spectacular. You'll want to walk around the city, feeding off the incredible energy, rubbernecking at the skyscrapers and marveling at the sheer "Tokyoness" of it all.
Sharon Waxman explores the contentious intersection where museums, antiquities dealers, and national pride meet in Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
The antiquities trade has been making headlines, and they are weird ones: "Eulogy for the Euphronius Krater." (What in the world is a "krater"?) "Museum to Show Off Fake Egyptian Sculptures." (That's ridiculous, isn't it?) "Antiquities Dealer Gets Prison Time." (A nice old man with a pince-nez comes to mind, dragged off to the clink for some tragicomical offense, no doubt.)
Adults and kids are hunched over mounds of multicolored clay, fashioning little clay people and assorted creatures that will star in kid-produced animated shorts.
Given Montreal's proximity to substantially-sized American cities -- it's just over five hours driving from Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut -- you might not think Quebec's largest city would be so different than these New England metropolises.
Madame Tussauds says it will repair the wax figure of Adolf Hitler beheaded by a visitor over the weekend and return it to its Berlin exhibition space as soon as possible.
Edvard Munch's masterpiece, "The Scream," went back on display Friday in Oslo, Norway -- four years after thieves pulled the painting from its frame in a daring armed robbery.
The glistening treasures of King Tut, the popular name of the famous Egyptian boy-king Tutankhamun, are fascinating a new generation of Londoners more than 25 years after the first exhibition was greeted with fanfare on British shores.
Banksy is Britain's most wanted artist -- his art sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but he continues to use public spaces as his main canvas, while all the time keeping his identity a secret.
Since the 2004 Olympics, Greece's ancient capital, Athens, has undergone a much-needed face-lift. And with a new look drawing international attention, the city is hitting its stride.
Last week, we offered a quick tour of New York's downtown neighborhoods. Following is a peek at the rest of the city. Next week we'll supply a few different itineraries to help get your planning started.
Richard Serra stands in the Museum of Modern Art's Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, his hair as white as the marble floor. The summer sun of New York radiates from the towering metal of his monumental works. He breaks no sweat.
Great wealth generally finds art at some point," observes Marianne Boesky, fresh off the slopes in Aspen. She would know: As a well-known Manhattan dealer and the daughter of infamous financier Iva...
Emboldened by the return of two ancient artifacts claimed to have been spirited from Greek soil a decade ago, Greece's Prime Minister has lashed out at the British Museum, saying its grounds for refusing to relinquish possession of Greece's most famous antiquities, the Parthenon Marbles, were "feeble."
The first large change-out of artworks in the three-year Louvre Atlanta cycle of exhibitions at the High Museum trades charcoal drawings for cabinetry and sketches for silver.
Though it sounds like a luxury high-rise or an exhibit at a grammar school science fair, a Skyspace is essentially just an austere room painted in a neutral color, with a built-in bench around the perimeter and, more to the point, a large hole in the ceiling.
The delegation assembled at the High Museum of Art awaits you in regal rows, beautifully ordered, devastatingly confident, graciously imperious. They watch through glass, unsmiling, as you approach. Serene. Accomplished. French.
The Louvre is inviting slam poets into its gilded galleries to rap about paintings. If that seems unusual, it is. With Toni Morrison as guest curator this month, the museum is dreaming up new ways to look at art.
At about midnight last July 5, the New York Police Department closed Manhattan's East 86th Street. Billionaire Ronald S. Lauder walked back and forth in the street, waiting. Employees of his boutiq...
Remember when you were a kid on vacation and your mom dragged you from the beach to take you to some dry-as-dust museum for a "wonderful educational experience?"
Baltimore has always been a multifaceted city. The "Star-Spangled Banner" was written here, and it was once known as the nation's spice capital -- the famed spice merchant McCormick opened its factory here in 1889. Today, Baltimore is a bright spot on the cultural map, with abundant historical attractions, a vibrant museum scene, great neighborhoods and sensational seafood-inspired restaurants.
The third largest member of the United Arab Emirates is in the process of carving out a distinctly different future than its neighbors by shifting its focus away from commerce and tourism and instead promoting culture and art.
You hear it all around you as you walk through the blond-wood-floored gallery on the Museum of Modern Art's sixth floor: "When did he 'turn?' When did the painting get strange?"
The Scene returned to London to spend the day with superstar photographer David Bailey. What's your favorite David Bailey photograph? Do you prefer the Streets' London or Dylan Jones's London? And where do you hang out in the English capital? Send us your suggestions and ideas and read your comments below.
Send us your tips, words, photos and videos to thescene@cnn.com, or text "SCENE" plus your comments to +44 7786 20 40 60. Remember to include your name and the city/country where you live.
One Sunday morning last April, a somber, well-turned-out crowd of 100 or so gathered in Manhattan's Madison Square Park for a memorial service. It was a sunny day, and in an adjacent playground dad...
For years Dallas has been known more for barbecue and the Cowboys than for fine arts. But as the city's image shifts upscale, Raymond Nasher deserves some of the credit. A successful real estate de...
Of course the art is the draw. But visitors to the redesigned Museum of Modern Art in New York this week can be forgiven for looking between the frames, reading between the lines, to glimpse the subtle effects that architect Yoshio Taniguchi's work may have on their experience.
Whirlpool's administrative center in Benton Harbor, Mich., looks exactly as you'd expect a 92-year-old home-appliance company's headquarters to look: like the most depressing high school in America...
PARIS WITHOUT THE WAIT Just how long is that line to see the Mona Lisa in the summertime? Buy a Paris Museum Pass and you'll never have to find out: It gets you in without having to stand in the to...
Last year the second most popular museum exhibit in the world wasn't an Old Master but a young subject: "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years," featuring dresses from the former First Lady's w...
Every college has a student who turns out to be the self-anointed music authority, and at my school that student was me. I was the college newspaper's rock columnist, I managed the on-campus record...
To many of us, shopping online for at least some holiday gifts has become a matter of course. No crowds, no lines, no packed parking lots--not to mention the ability to comparison shop in a matter ...
As a provider of electricity, London's Bankside Power Station was a flop. First fired up in 1963, it shut down 18 years later because its power source, oil, was too expensive. Designed by Giles Gil...
When I was in the third grade, my class took a field trip to the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. We'd been learning about dinosaurs, but nothing our teacher had told us--not even w...
I've spent a sizable portion of my adult life thinking I don't like museums. That's because I spent a sizable portion of my childhood getting dragged by my parents to all sorts of fancy-schmancy ar...
When Sally Ganz and her husband, Victor, plunked down $7,000 for a canvas called Dream back in 1941, they knew it was a good buy. The artist was an acknowledged master, and the painting, a portrait...
Where do you reserve a table the next time you want an exceptional meal prepared by one of the most talented chefs in your area? For many discerning diners, today's choice ticket is often the local...
As philanthropist Ross Perot might say, here's the problem: Making money is fun, sexy--a great outlet for aggression. But giving it away? What's the challenge there? Any idiot with an Ivy League de...
Armed with his billion-dollar checkbook and a keen vision of the oncoming digital age, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates began courting the world's major museums in 1989. But when he asked for the digi...
Looking for gift ideas? How about a bronze sculpture by Frederic Remington? Or a gold bangle that once circled Cleopatra's arm? Or a Chippendale chair that graced Thomas Jefferson's Monticello? Hig...
Now voyager, here's your choice: You can set sail on a cruise liner with a thousand people you don't have much in common with and tax your mind sunbathing and shuffleboarding. Or you can sail to sp...
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