A small marble sculpture a family had kept on their piano for years, believing it to be a copy, has been confirmed as an authentic work by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. The piece, called “Despair”, sold at auction in France on Monday for €860,000 (£725,000; $982,000). The 28.5cm (11 inches) figure dates from 1892…
Wilbur the pig went from wandering through a West Hollywood neighbourhood to becoming the unlikely focus of an adoption contest. After his appearance was captured on video and spread online, the pig was taken to the West L.A. Animal Shelter, where no owner came forward. Four people eventually expressed interest in adopting him, prompting a…
In 1929, Peter Pan author J. M. Barrie gave his rights to a London children’s hospital; 97 years later, the gift still supports seriously ill children (Image Credit: GOSH Hospital) A fictional boy who never wanted to grow up has helped support generations of seriously ill children in London. In 1929, Scottish author J. M….
James Patterson raised his 2015 school library donation to $1.75m, helping 467 US libraries (Image Credit: ALA) A flood of requests from schools revealed how badly many libraries needed support, prompting bestselling author James Patterson to increase a donation he had originally planned at $1.25 million. In March 2015, Patterson announced the pledge in partnership…
Rubber vine began its Australian story as a garden ornamental brought from Madagascar, and it has since become one of the country’s most troublesome weeds. Left unchecked, this glossy, trumpet-flowered climber can scramble up to 30 metres into tree canopies, blanket creek lines, smother the native vegetation beneath it, and form dense thickets. It also…
Jackie Chan’s appeal was simple: if fans could spare a dollar, he would match it and put both contributions towards building schools for children in remote parts of China. The “Build a School for a Dollar” project turned small gifts into a shared effort, inviting children and adults around the world to contribute whatever they…
A 1904 bridge in New Zealand has outlived the road traffic it was built to carry. The Mangaweka Cantilever Bridge spans the Rangitīkei River in the central North Island, where its steel trusses have stood for more than a century. Heritage New Zealand reported that when a routine inspection in 2016 found serious structural deterioration,…
Spectral imaging expert Bill Christens-Barry and Debora Mayor of the Weissman Preservation Centre Prepare HLS MS172 for imaging. Image Credit: Harvard Law Today Harvard Law School bought a stained and faded parchment in 1946 for just $27.50, believing it was an ordinary later copy of the Magna Carta. The document was catalogued as dating from…
A New York teenager who lost her father and four sisters in a devastating house fire was at the centre of a legal dispute months later, after relatives who raised more than $100,000 to support her allegedly failed to hand over most of the money. According to a 2019 report by WWNY-TV and court documents…
US downgrades Hong Kong to tier 3 in the human trafficking ranking. Hong Kong has rejected the United States’ decision to place it in the lowest category of its annual human trafficking report, calling the assessment “entirely unfounded” and accusing Washington of applying double standards in evaluating the city’s efforts to combat trafficking. The US…
