Robbers rammed a car into a medieval cathedral in southwest France early Monday, breaking windows and sawing through metal bars to grab silver chalices and other irreplaceable church treasures, local authorities said. The gang had tied a tree trunk to the front of the car they used to smash through a cathedral door in the town of Oloron-Sainte-Marie, municipal official Laurent Paris told AFP. The Romanesque-Gothic edifice is a historical monument and was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1998 as part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. Once inside, the thieves helped themselves to some of the cathedral’s many chalices, crosses and other ceremonial objects, much of it gold, as well as a 18th-century nativity scene and a collection of priestly garments, including a rare cape donated by the 16th century King Francis I. The treasures had been kept in a chapel, behind a steel grid whose “bars were sawn through,” Paris said.

Vibrant paintings and imaginative forms by the most celebrated artists and designers of the 20th century are waiting in the wings for Palm Beach Modern Auctions’ November 9 Modern Art & Design sale. The live gallery auction will be presented in three consecutive sessions: Important Art & Design, followed by Important Prints, and finally a Modern Art & Design session with attractive price points. All remote forms of bidding will be available, including live online through LiveAuctioneers. “It would be impossible to single out just one item as the sale’s headliner, but the Francois-Xavier Lalanne ‘Moutons,’ David Hockney lithograph, and Diego Giacometti bird sculpture are sure to be among the most previewed artworks,” said Palm Beach Modern Auctions co-owner and auctioneer Rico Baca. “There are some exciting pieces in the furniture section as well, including a rare Ado Chale bronze coffee table

Elisabeth Samson, an 18th-century freeborn black woman, made millions as a coffee planter and exporter using slave labor in the Dutch colony of Suriname. She was one of the wealthiest women of the era, but few people have ever heard her story. That’s why her image is one of 13 diverse portraits recently added to a collection of paintings of the city’s wealthiest trade groups. Before the additions, the Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age, as it was known, was a sea of all white and mostly male faces. It resides in a wing of the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam that houses part of the Amsterdam Museum’s collection. Among the other new portraits in the display are of Elieser, a young black Jewish man who served in the household of a Spanish poet-merchant; and Sychnecta, a Native American man who was once displayed in an Amsterdam human zoo. These photographic portraits, created using contemporary models in period clothes and settings,

The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State is presenting an exhibition in celebration of the centenary of the Bauhaus, the influential school founded in Weimar, Germany, that unified fine arts, design, and architecture in its curriculum. The Palmer joins organizations worldwide in marking the 100-year anniversary with its opening of exhibition Bauhaus Transfers: Albers/Rauschenberg and a variety of related programming throughout the fall season. Artist Josef Albers (1888–1976), a student and then instructor at the Bauhaus, fled Nazi Germany for the United States after the school was forced to close in 1933. Albers took a post as head of Black Mountain College, a new art school in North Carolina, and became a formative educator for many artists. Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) first attended the school in 1948–49 and considered Albers “the most important teacher” he ever had. This exhibition pairs Albers&#14