Egypt on Sunday announced the completion of a project to save famed 2,000-year old catacombs in the costal city of Alexandria from rising waters. The Kom al-Shoqafa location, considered by archaeologists to be the largest Greco-Roman burial site in Egypt, has been threatened by water since its discovery in 1900. The catacombs, which were in use from the first to the fourth century AD, are renowned for funerary architecture blending ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman art. The rising water prompted Egypt to launch a massive drainage project supported by the United States Agency for International (USAID) in 2017. Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani told reporters at the site that the programme had helped “end a problem threatening the area for more than 100 years”. Thomas Nichols, an engineer involved in the project, called it “a unique programme where we blended archaeology and civil engineering together”. Egypt has in recent years sought to promote archaeolo

Thierry Mugler: Couturissime explores the multiple universes of Thierry Mugler, couturier, director, photographer and visionary perfumer. Initiated, produced and circulated by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the Clarins Group and Maison Mugler, this major exhibition traces the work of an original creative force who revolutionized fashion and haute couture. Thierry Mugler: Couturissime features some 150 outfits – most restored and exhibited for the first time – produced between 1977 and 2014, in addition to accessories, theatre costumes, videos, film clips, videos, archives and unpublished sketches. It also presents a hundred rare prints by the greatest fashion photographers and artists, including Max Abadian, Lillian Bassman, Guy Bourdin, Jean-Paul Goude, Karl Lagerfeld, Dominique Issermann, David LaChapelle, Luigi & Iango, Alix Malka, Steven Meisel, Mert & Marcus, Sarah Moon, Pierre et Gilles, Paol

After eight years of brutal war in Syria, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed city of Aleppo lies in ruins — but a vast digital archive in Germany aims to keep its memory alive and help rebuild it one day. The Syrian Heritage Archive Project documents what it can of the millennia-old history of a part of the world that saw some humanity’s earliest urban centres and writing systems, but which has become a symbol of the barbarity of war. The special exhibition that opened in Berlin on Thursday features a digital treasure trove of photographs, maps and films as well as artefacts to take visitors on a virtual journey through Aleppo and other cultural marvels of Syria. “This project aims to preserve the past and also has a vision for the future: to gather archives so that reconstruction can happen quickly,” said Stefan Weber, director of Berlin’s Museum of Islamic Art, which is hosting the exhibition until May 26. “For over 100 years, our museum has had a special connection with Syria,” said

The naked warrior grimaces as a graceful woman methodically slices off his head with a sword. It is a burst of violence painted in haunting tones by a Renaissance master worth an estimated $170 million — or yet another fake distressing the art world. The mystery took another plot twist on Thursday with the unveiling of the fully restored version of what some believe to be Caravaggio’s long-lost masterpiece. French art expert Eric Turquin has been looking after the life-size canvas since its discovery during pipe repair work in the attic of an old house in the southwestern French city of Toulouse in 2014. “Not only is it a Caravaggio, but of all the Caravaggios that are known today, this is one of the great pictures,” Turquin said ahead of the painting’s June 27 auction in Toulouse. “It’s not just an addition — it is a major addition to the oeuvre of the artist.