Maev Kennedy

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Shiver me timbers: AI speeds up repair of historic British warship HMS Victory

Technology is being used to create an image database of vessel—as acres of wooden planking damaged by time, water and insects are to be replaced

Newly identified William Kent chairs—discovered in a Wiltshire Church—go on show at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge

The two internationally important chairs have been acquired for the reopening of the institution's Founder’s Galleries

Roman funerary bed found in central London

Archaeologists are "blown away" by the levels of preservation of the finds at Holborn Viaduct, which also include five oak coffins, a decorated lamp, a glass vial, and jet and amber beads

Museum of the Home's displays will change to reflect changing times

The 20th-century displays in the London institution’s Rooms Through Time galleries are being overhauled to reflect the diverse communities of Hoxton, the historic core of east London and one of the UK’s most gentrified areas

Trinity College Dublin turns a page on Old Library conservation

A major €90m upgrade of the hallowed Long Room—and its 200,000 books—begins at the end of the year, while its famous Book of Kells gets an immersive makeover

Striking gold: 2022 was a record year for treasure and antiquities finds, with more than 50,000 items reported

From gold coins to ivory carvings, many pieces were found by amateur metal detectorists, according to latest report by British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme

Booksreview

A new book explores the life of a pioneering Irish stained-glass artist through his glorious creations

Michael Healy’s reclusiveness belied his trailblazing role in Ireland's most prestigious studio of its kind

Waddesdon Manor’s elephant swings its trunk once more

Restored to its former glory, the 200kg automaton is now on show at the Buckingham mansion

DIY insulation and cow bones: Oxford college renovation reveals what life was like as a 17th-century student

The conservation of St John’s College has uncovered hidden paintings, underfloor fire escapes and an intriguing signature

Spectacular Lumiere art festival lights up UK city of Durham

The latest edition of the popular event includes work by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Ai Weiwei

Model restoration: Holbein painting of Tudor merchant returned to original glory—including sharper cheekbones

The newly conserved portrait of Derich Born will star in the Queen's Gallery show on the northern Renaissance artist

Bookspreview

From bonnets to ball gowns: inside Jane Austen's well-ordered closet

The author’s voluminous letters to her sister Cassandra reveal her fashion tastes and thrifty skills

Five generations of Brueghels are brought together for the first time

New show will examine the political and economic conditions that shaped the family’s fortunes

East Sussex institution hails the pioneering queer couple who changed textiles

The Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft is displaying an exhibition that pays homage to the unsung influence and secret history of Hilary Bourne and Barbara Allen

'These journeys should be remembered': Victorian stone benches for migrant workers are given listed status

Travellers' Rest stones were installed between Liverpool and Manchester for travel-weary Irish labourers

Riddle of the Iron Age warrior buried with a mirror and sword is solved

A new scientific method has been used by archaeologists to determine the sex of the skeletal remains found on the Isles of Scilly

Leighton House: the celebrated Victorian artist’s jewel-box home has been opened up

The sumptuous home and studio of painter Frederic Leighton has been made more welcoming with a £9.6m redevelopment

In partnership withArt Fund Museum of the Year 2023

British wartime control tower to become holiday home after £3.1m restoration

Conservation charity Landmark Trust plans to transform derelict building into unique four-bedroom house, due to open in 2025

Booksreview

The invented histories of the Isle of Avalon

An entertaining study of the seductive legends of England’s past, from the eighth century to the present day

Diaries of the UK's first female professional astronomer acquired by Bath's Herschel Museum

The revealing handwritten memoirs of Caroline Herschel, the first woman to receive payment from King George III for her interstellar discoveries, has been acquired by the museum that was once her home

Britain's oldest piece of carved wood discovered in layer of peat

The large piece of oak is around 6,000 years old–2,000 years older than Stonehenge

'Justice is my claim': library discovers new poem attributed to Queen Caroline, who was barred from her husband's coronation in 1821

Caroline of Brunswick, "an injured princess" famously acquitted of treasonous adultery, was refused admission to George IV's crowning in Westminster Abbey

London's National Gallery gets papal approval for its Saint Francis show

Exhibits include a cloth said to have been worn by the saint, masterpieces by Botticelli and Zurbarán, and a new Richard Long commission

Riddle of ancient Egypt’s ‘impossible’ sculpture is finally solved—in Scotland

Pioneering research by a National Museums of Scotland curator finds statue reflects a village of eminent tomb-makers

The curtain rises: London's Museum of Shakespeare opens in 2024 on the site of a long-hidden theatre

The new venue, in Shoreditch, will reveal the archaeological remains of the Curtain Playhouse for the first time

Back after 2,000 years: the Roman gateway to Britain

The Richborough fort in Kent, the base for the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD, reopens to the public

Booksreview

Scurrilous, rude and joyful: the secret stories of tampered pennies told in new publication

Essays explore the myriad ways that coins have been inscribed with messages of protest, love and more

Island hopping: exhibition finds connections between ancient cultures of the Mediterranean

Show at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum of more than 200 artefacts from Sardinia, Cyprus and Crete considers the connections between lost island civilisations

Britain's oldest prayer beads—buried more than 1,000 years ago—to be displayed in new museum on remote island

It is one of several artefacts making their first public appearance at Lindisfarne Priory

Booksreview

For richer, for poorer: domestic life in 18th-century Ireland examined in new book

Scholarly essays examine how people lived, from poor tenant farmers to their whist-playing landlords