Exclusive: sketches for Introduction and Allegro for Strings had been removed from sketchbook by composer in 1930
The British Library has acquired previously unknown sketches and drafts by Sir Edward Elgar for one of his best-known masterpieces, Introduction and Allegro for Strings.
Spanning 15 pages, they shed light on the creative process of Britain’s most revered composer. One bears the beginnings of an unknown organ piece on which he had started work.
Continue reading...Pair declined to give public endorsement of Trump in wake of 7 October attacks, All or Nothing by Michael Wolff reveals
Donald Trump’s Jewish daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, refused to sign a statement saying Trump was not antisemitic, according to a new book by the veteran Trump tell-all author Michael Wolff.
“As he kept seeming to be incapable of offering absolute support for Israel in the wake of October 7,” Wolff writes, referring to the deadly 2023 attacks by Hamas, “Trump, not for the first time, turned to Jared for Jewish cover, explicitly asking him and Ivanka for a public endorsement.
Continue reading...Janette Rosing built up pioneering trove of 8,000 images dating back to the early days of the Industrial Revolution
Some of the oldest photographs in England which show the country’s transformation after the industrial revolution have been acquired by Historic England.
Images from the Janette Rosing collection include some of the earliest landscape photography ever taken in the country, spanning the breadth of southern England from the harbours of Clovelly and Plymouth in Devon to the streets of Bethnal Green and the banks of the River Thames in London.
Continue reading...Charges of criminal negligence dropped against three key defendants over death of British singer in October
A court in Argentina has dropped charges of criminal negligence against three of the five people indicted in connection with the death of Liam Payne, the former One Direction singer who fell from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires last October.
In a decision issued Wednesday, the Argentine federal appeals court ordered the other two defendants in the case to remain in custody. They are facing prosecution on charges they supplied the famed British boy band star with narcotics.
Continue reading...Matthew Teller, whose books include Nine Quarters of Jerusalem, said the society’s response to the event which saw two leading booksellers detained was ‘an abject failure’
A writer has left the Society of Authors (SoA) in protest after the UK’s largest writers’ body made a statement on a recent Israeli police raid on a Palestinian-owned bookstore without mentioning Israel, Palestine or the names of the booksellers who were arrested.
Matthew Teller, the author of books including Nine Quarters of Jerusalem, said the SoA’s statement “added insult to the injury” and was a “betrayal”, leading to him cancelling his membership on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Consumer group complains about song’s stereotypes of Italians – but other Italians say the lyrics are ‘no stresso’
The Eurovision song contest is several months away but the drama has already begun, with calls from Italy for Estonia’s catchy pick for the competition to be scrapped due to lyrics poking fun at Italian stereotypes of being coffee-drinking, spaghetti-eating mafiosi.
Espresso Macchiato, by the rapper Tommy Cash, is sung in a blend of broken English and Italian and depicts a life of sweet indulgence. “Ciao bella, I’m Tomaso, addicted to tobacco. Mi like mi coffè very importante,” the first verse begins.
Continue reading...Prosecutors seize 71 canvases and say evidence suggests an art restorer was behind frauds
A clandestine workshop has been discovered in Rome where fakes of paintings by some of the world’s most famous artists, including Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt, were produced before being sold online.
The discovery was made in a house in a district in the north of the city by a team from Rome’s public prosecutors’ office and the forgeries unit of Italy’s art squad, which they said has gathered “important evidence” to suggest an art restorer was at the centre of the racket.
Continue reading...More than 400 artists sign letter urging organization to resist funding ban for projects focused on DEI and gender
Donald Trump’s efforts to influence US cultural institutions received more pushback on Tuesday, as a group of more than 400 artists sent a letter to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) calling on the organization to resist the president’s restrictions on funding for projects promoting diversity or “gender ideology”.
The letter, first reported by the New York Times, comes after the NEA declared that federal grant applicants – which include colleges and universities, non-profit groups, individual artists and more – must comply with regulations stipulated by Trump’s executive orders. The new measures bar federal funds from going toward programs focused on “diversity, equity and inclusion” or used to “promote gender ideology”.
Continue reading...Verdict comes after former friend A$AP Relli accused rapper of shooting him in Hollywood in 2021
The musician A$AP Rocky has been found not guilty of shooting a former friend after an altercation in Hollywood in 2021, sparing him from a potentially decades-long prison sentence.
A Los Angeles jury on Tuesday acquitted him of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Continue reading...There are two awards apiece for the UK artists, while Nigerian singer Ayra Starr also wins two at Newcastle-hosted ceremony for Black musical excellence
Seventeen years since his debut single, British rapper Bashy has capped his long-awaited return to music with two wins at the 2025 Mobo awards, given each year to the best music of Black origin in the UK and overseas.
The 40-year-old vocalist and actor, born Ashley Thomas, won best hip-hop act as well as album of the year for Being Poor Is Expensive. While it didn’t make the UK charts, the album earned critical acclaim and a dedicated audience on streaming, drawn to its examination of race, mental health and working-class life in north-west London.
Continue reading...The musician, along with band members Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton, had many hits in the 1970s and 1980s, including four UK No 1s
Rick Buckler, the drummer of the rock group The Jam, has died aged 69 after a short illness.
In a statement, his management company said Buckley “passed away peacefully on Monday evening in Woking after a short illness with family by his side”.
Continue reading...Swingers, which aims to celebrate the sport’s feminist history, will take over the Flinders Street station ballroom as part of the 2025 Rising festival
The acclaimed author and film-maker Miranda July is among a group of artists who are building a mini-golf course in Melbourne to celebrate the sport’s little-known feminist history.
Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf will take over the Flinders Street station ballroom, an abandoned space above the busy Melbourne railway station, as part of the city’s annual Rising festival.
Continue reading...The Oscar-nominated actor has said he is attempting to be more candid about his former co-star’s alleged behaviour
Guy Pearce, the actor Oscar-nominated for his role in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, has opened up about his experiences when working with Kevin Spacey on 1997 film LA Confidential.
Pearce had previously been oblique about his time with Spacey, who has been dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct, which Spacey has always denied, calling him “a handsy guy” in 2018. But speaking on Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter, the actor said he was now attempting to be franker about his co-star’s alleged behaviour.
Continue reading...The singer is being charged with defamation of the far-right Italian prime minister leader while performing at a festival in Turin in 2023
Placebo frontman Brian Molko is being charged with defamation after appearing to call the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a “piece of shit, fascist, racist” in Italian while performing at a festival in Turin in 2023.
In August 2023, Meloni sued Molko over the comments. Prosecutors subsequently opened an investigation into the claims and have charged Molko with “contempt of the institutions”.
Continue reading...Elizabeth Ann Macgregor says Tony Burke has questions to answer after Khaled Sabsabi’s offer was rescinded but the arts minister has denied involvement
The Australian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale is likely to remain dark next year for the first time, the former director of the Museum of Contemporary Art says.
Elizabeth Ann Macgregor on Tuesday weighed into the fracas over Creative Australia’s decision to rescind its Venice Biennale contract to Lebanese-born Australia artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino, just six days after announcing the pair would be Australia’s representatives at the 2026 prestigious international art event.
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Continue reading...The Colombian star went to the emergency room in Peru’s capital on Saturday night, days after launching her first worldwide tour in seven years
Shakira cancelled her concert in the Peruvian capital on Sunday after being hospitalised with abdominal pain, a setback that comes days after she launched her first worldwide tour in seven years.
The 48-year-old Colombian star posted on her social media accounts that she had gone to the emergency room on Saturday night and remained in hospital.
Continue reading...Curators and artists say this is a time of overdue recognition but others are cautious about the longevity of the moment
At last year’s Venice Biennale, the pavilions were packed with Indigenous art from around the world.
Artists from the Tupinambá community in Brazil sat alongside work by the late Rosa Elena Curruchich, who made pieces about Indigenous women in Guatemala. The Amazonian artist Aycoobo was celebrated, as were carvings by the Māori artist Fred Graham. The eventual winner of the Golden Lion – the event’s highest accolade – was the Indigenous Australian artist Archie Moore.
Continue reading...Issa Rae, Ben Folds and Shonda Rhimes among those who chose not to associate with the institution and president
Donald Trump’s takeover of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington has generated outcry from performers and members, with several stars pulling out of engagements or associations.
Trump purged the board of the arts foundation last week, clearing the group of appointees by Joe Biden. Stacked with Trump loyalists, the new board terminated the center’s president, Deborah Rutter, and installed Trump as chair. The board then named Richard Grenell, who served as ambassador to Germany during the first Trump administration, as interim president.
Continue reading...Amid political pressure, Creative Australia says deselecting the Lebanese-born artist will avoid ‘divisive debate’
Khaled Sabsabi, the western Sydney artist who fled Lebanon’s civil war as a child, has been dropped from representing Australia at the 61st Venice Biennale – just five days after being selected to do so.
Sabsabi selection for the 2026 showcase had caused controversy due to some of the artist’s previous works, including a 2007 depiction of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated last year, and a 2006 video rendering of the 9/11 attacks called Thank You Very Much. Shortly after the announcement, Sabsabi admitted to being shocked at being chosen, telling the Guardian: “I felt that, in this time and in this space, this wouldn’t happen because of who I am.”
Continue reading...Postal Museum says research featured in new exhibition shows how global postal service was ‘tool of empire’
A British shipping company that became the largest in the world at the height of empire continued to use the labour of enslaved people after the abolition of slavery, research has found.
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC), which received a royal charter from Queen Victoria in 1839, used enslaved workers on the tiny island of St Thomas, which was a Danish colony at the time and is now part of the US Virgin Islands.
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