BlinkDash

ArtAs another religious painting restoration goes horribly wrong, we take a look at some of the finest examples of butchered statues, art installations and frescoes In the latest instalment of the greatest genre of art news – and I write that as a lover of art – another restoration has gone awry. The word “awry” is being generous. This is the revelation that a private collector, based in Valencia, paid €1,200 (£1,070) for a restoration job on baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables.

US news This article is more than 1 month oldMoms for Liberty outreach leader exposed as registered sex offenderThis article is more than 1 month oldPhillip Fisher Jr, who served three years in prison, volunteered at Philadelphia summit for rightwing parental rights group A Philadelphia-based outreach leader for Moms for Liberty – the conservative parental rights group that is pushing to exclude discussion of gender and diversity from school curricula – has been exposed as a registered sex offender.

The ObserverDiana Rigg This article is more than 1 month old‘Nobody speaks about this’: Diana Rigg made impassioned plea for assisted dying law before deathThis article is more than 1 month oldIn a recording in 2020, the actor made a case for giving ‘human beings true agency over their bodies at the end of life’ Read more: ‘Push me over the edge’ – Diana Rigg’s daughter Rachael Stirling writes about her mother’s dying wishes

New York This article is more than 4 months oldThirteen-year wage dispute between NYC and Staten Island ferry workers set to endThis article is more than 4 months oldFerry captains, mates and engineers appear to be reaching deal after more than a decade without a union contract with the city One of the lengthiest wage disputes in the US is reported to be drawing to an end, as Staten Island ferry captains, mates and engineers appeared to be reaching a deal after 13 years without a union contract with New York City.

TheatreReviewChichester Festival theatre Instantly infectious melodies, superb choreography and irresistible comedy are met with astonishing performances in this lovable show A faithful revival of this 1992 musical could easily seem as dated as its backwater setting in Depression-era America. Based on George and Ira Gershwin’s Girl Crazy (1930), it has an added hodgepodge of songs from the Gershwins’ oeuvre, an old-fashioned showgirl aesthetic and a plot abounding in comic stereotypes and pratfalls.

US news This article is more than 14 years oldInternational conman captured at US-Canada borderThis article is more than 14 years oldJuan Carlos Guzmán-Betancourt, 33, is believed to have stolen at least $1m around the globeThey will be watching Juan Carlos Guzmán-Betancourt very closely at his jail in Vermont. The last time the silver-tongued Colombian conman with a taste for the high life was locked up he walked out of a British prison after persuading the authorities to let him go to the dentist on his own.

Top 10sFood and drink booksFrom ‘quaking puddings’ to ‘syrup of tobacco’ and the first fry-up, the novelist serves up a feast of appetising reading I've spent the past three years researching and writing a novel set in the time of Charles I about an orphan who becomes the greatest cook of his age. John Saturnall's Feast takes place in the vast subterranean kitchens of the (fictional) Buckland Manor where John learns his craft.

FashionThe summer’s apparently hottest new trend is just the latest example in a series of nonsensical ‘cleavages’ The female body truly is remarkable: every few months it seems to sprout a new part. One day you’ve got a simple pair of breasts, for example, and the next day you’re being told you’ve got underboob, sideboobs and overboob. And it’s not just breasts you’ve got to worry about. Apparently our hips are at it too – and we all know hips don’t lie.

First look reviewNymphomaniac This article is more than 10 years oldReviewThis article is more than 10 years oldLars Von Trier's sex epic is a four-hour cold shower, yet it ravishes the brain and leaves you begging for moreHang on to your seat back, your Bible, or the hand of a friend. Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac bludgeons the body and tenderises the soul. It is perplexing, preposterous and utterly fascinating; a false bill of goods in that it's a film about sex that is deliberately unsexy and a long, garrulous story (two volumes, four hours) that largely talks to itself.