LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) – An archivist at the
British Film Institute has stumbled across a 1901 movie just one
minute long which turns out to be the earliest surviving film
featuring a character from the works of Charles Dickens.

Bryony Dixon was researching early films of China when she
noticed an entry in a catalogue referring to “The Death of Poor
Joe”, which she realised could refer to a character in Dickens’
“Bleak House”.

LONDON (Reuters) – It could have traditionalists gagging on their champagne, but the next production on the Royal Opera House’s main stage in the UK capital will feature a troupe of breakdancers spinning and body-popping to the music.

“Miss Fortune”, a new work commissioned jointly by Covent Garden and the Bregenz Festival in Austria, is by British composer Judith Weir and transports an old Sicilian folk tale into the present day.

LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s biggest record label says it is trying something a little different as it seeks the elusive “holy grail” for Japanese pop — global chart success.

A procession of “J-pop” acts touted as the next big thing on the world stage have come and gone, most causing barely a ripple in markets like the United States, Germany and Britain.

LONDON (Reuters) – A large number of music files of the late “king of pop” Michael Jackson were allegedly stolen from record company Sony Music by computer hackers, sources familiar with the case said on Monday.

Sony Music, a unit of Sony Corps, signed a deal with Jackson’s estate in 2010, the year after the “Thriller” singer’s death, to release 10 albums covering previously unreleased material and his back catalogue.

LONDON (Reuters) – Christie’s will offer 15 works from the “Golden Age” of Dutch painting at an auction in July, including a “masterpiece” by Rembrandt which it expects to fetch as much as 12 million pounds ($19 million).

The works, owned by the Dutch collectors and philanthropists Pieter and Olga Dreesmann, will go under the hammer in London on July 3 as part of the auctioneer’s old masters and British paintings evening sale.

LONDON (Reuters) – Two British galleries have raised 45 million pounds for an important painting by Renaissance master Titian, dipping into their own coffers rather than asking the cash-strapped public to help.

The acquisition of “Diana and Callisto” by London’s National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh, follows a similar purchase in 2009 for the accompanying canvas “Diana and Actaeon,” which cost the galleries 50 million pounds.

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) – Two British galleries have
raised 45 million pounds ($72 million) for an important painting
by Renaissance master Titian, dipping into their own coffers
rather than asking the cash-strapped public to help.

The acquisition of “Diana and Callisto” by London’s National
Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh,
follows a similar purchase in 2009 for the accompanyng canvas
“Diana and Actaeon”, which cost the galleries 50 million pounds.

LONDON (Reuters) – A diamond coveted by kings, queens and princes for centuries, used to reinforce alliances between nations and pawned to pay off royal debts goes on sale at Sotheby’s in Geneva on May 15.

The auction house called the “Beau Sancy” “one of the most important historic diamonds ever to come to auction,” reflecting its part in the fluctuating fortunes of Europe’s royal families for more than 400 years.

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Alighiero Boetti was an
Italian artist who put Afghanistan on the map — literally.

One of the highlights of a major new retrospective at Tate
Modern in London called “Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan” is a room
of large textile maps of the world designed by Boetti but
embroidered by weavers in Afghanistan and, later Pakistan.

LONDON (Reuters) – Long eclipsed by contemporaries like Reynolds and Gainsborough, 18th century German painter Johan Zoffany gets a show of his own at London’s Royal Academy next month which curators hope will restore the reputation of an “under-rated” artist.

Zoffany remains such an enigma that no one knows how many of his works survive and organisers of the upcoming exhibition hope the publicity it generates may unearth more of his paintings previously attributed to others.