Scientists Discover World’s Oldest Cave Painting
Scientists have recently reported finding a 45,500-year-old painting on a cave wall in Indonesia. The painting shows a wild pig which looks similar to an animal known as the warty pig, which still lives in Indonesia today.
The painting was found in 2017 by an archeology student from Australia’s Griffith University. The cave where it was found is on the island of Sulawesi, and is extremely difficult to reach. That may help explain why the painting was never discovered before.
(Source: Maxime Aubert, Griffith University.)
Tests show that the painting is at least 45,500 years old, and may be thousands of years older. Another picture of a pig was also found in the cave.
It’s not clear who created the drawings. The painting is older than any human bones that have ever been found in Sulawesi.
Some scientists suggest that human bones from this time period may soon be found on Sulawesi. Others believe the paintings could have been made by a relative of modern humans, such as Neanderthals.
(Source: AA Oktaviana, Griffith University.)
No matter who made them, there is a rush to find old cave paintings like these. The condition of ancient cave paintings all through Indonesia is getting worse quickly, meaning the world’s oldest paintings could soon disappear.
500-Year-Old Painting Found in Apartment Closet
On Monday, police in Naples, Italy recovered a 500-year-old painting that had been stolen from a museum. The picture is called “Salvator Mundi” (Savior of the World) and is believed to have been painted by Giacomo Alibrandi, a student of Leonardo da Vinci.
The painting is a copy of a da Vinci painting by the same name. The da Vinci version sold for $450 million in 2017. At the time, it was the most expensive painting ever sold.
(Source: Leonardo da Vinci [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)
The police found the painting in the closet of an apartment. The owner of the apartment has been arrested.
The painting was stolen from the Doma Museum, which is part of the San Domenico Maggiore church. The museum has been closed for months because of the coronavirus, so no one had even noticed that the painting was missing.
Original Drawing for Tintin Cover Sells for $3.2 Million
Last week, a rare picture drawn by Hergé, the creator of the Tintin comic books, sold for $3.8 million. That set a new record for the most expensive comic book artwork in the world.
Hergé is the name used by Belgian artist Georges Remi. Hergé created the drawing for the front of his 1936 book, “The Blue Lotus”.
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Last week, a rare picture drawn by Hergé, the creator of the Tintin comic books, sold for $3.8 million. Hergé originally created the drawing (left) for the front of his 1936 book, “The Blue Lotus”, but a simpler drawing (right) was used instead.
The book tells the story of a young reporter called Tintin, his dog Snowy, and their adventures in China. In the picture, Tintin and Snowy are hiding in a large vase while a huge red dragon floats above them.
When Hergé was told his drawing would cost too much to print, he drew a simpler version of the picture, which was used as the cover. He gave the original drawing to the 7-year-old son of his editor. The drawing wound up in a drawer, and wasn’t seen again until 1981.
The painting is extremely rare. When the picture was auctioned off, it only took seconds for bidding to pass $2 million.
(Source: Artcurial.)