Anne Madden’s artistic success in France allowed her get away from just being seen as Louis le Brocquy’s wife, writes Alan O’Riordan

An exhibition of set and costume designs by great artists for the Ballets Russes are currently on display at the UCC gallery, writes Colette Sheridan

January’s beauty launches offer a little colour therapy and a lot of coverage, says Rachel Marie Walsh.

Kerrie O’Brien, reading at the Winter Warmers event in Cork this weekend, has also put together a book in aid of the homeless, writes Eoghan O’Sullivan

Reviewing some of the best books for children available this week.

Des O’Sullivan highlights the sale of work by John ffrench, craftsman and founder of Arklow Studio Pottery.

ITV boss Peter Fincham has called the presentation of Jules O’Dwyer’s dog act a “judgement call” — as complaints poured in about the Britain’s Got Talent stunt.

EXCEPTIONAL EXHIBITS

Conor Power visits a chapel in the French region of Provence which was completely designed by artist Henri Matisse as a tribute to a woman who took care of him when he was diagnosed with cancer in 1941.

A Swiss museum has reluctantly agreed to accept part of a billion-euro art bequest from the late Cornelius Gurlitt, a German recluse whose secret collection included masterpieces looted from their Jewish owners by the Nazis.

Cornelius Gurlitt, a reclusive German whose long-secret hoard of well over 1,000 artworks triggered an international uproar over the fate of art looted by the Nazis, died yesterday, aged 81.

An art historian has found two art works stolen by the Nazis inside Germany’s parliament, a newspaper reported, in a new embarrassment for authorities after a huge stash of looted art came to light last month.

The German collector who kept a priceless trove of art, possibly including works stolen by the Nazis, hidden for half a century says he did so because he “loved” them and he wants them back.

Germany sought to calm a row over art looted during the Nazi era by posting images online of 25 paintings including long-lost works by Matisse, Delacroix and Rodin with the aim of finding their rightful owners.

A vast trove of modern art seized under Germany’s Nazi regime, including works by Picasso, Matisse and Chagall, has been discovered in a Munich apartment among stacks of rotting groceries, German magazine Focus reported.

Dutch museums have identified 139 pieces of art, including dozens of paintings - one by Matisse and many by Dutch painters of varying renown such as Impressionist Isaac Israels – as likely to have been taken forcibly from Jewish owners by the Nazis.

Three Romanians have pleaded guilty to stealing seven paintings, including works by Picasso, Monet and Matisse, from a Dutch museum in a raid that shocked the art world.

West Cork-based artist Cormac Boydell, who specialises in ceramics, has an exhibition opening at the Ballymaloe House Grain Store on May 3 as part of Ballymaloe’s Literary Festival of Food and Wine.

The family of a prominent Parisian art dealer is demanding that a Norwegian museum return a Henri Matisse painting seized by Nazis during the Second World War.

THINK New Year’s Eve, and New York comes to mind. Images of Times Square lit up like a disco ball, of crowds a million-strong cheering as a glittering sphere (covered in 2,688 Waterford crystals) descends into the ‘crossroads of the world’.

Thieves yesterday broke into a Rotterdam museum and walked off with works from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, and Matisse potentially worth hundreds of millions of euro.

Seven paintings by some of the world's most famous artists have been stolen from an exhibition in the Netherlands.

Art dealers, the Waddingtons, are selling up their elevated Ballycotton home, Tommy Barker reports on a seaside house that's chock full of collectibles.

Irish-born Australian rules football star Jim Stynes, who lost his battle with cancer, will receive a state funeral in his adopted home country.

Tributes have been flooding in for former Dublin minor footballer and AFL legend Jim Stynes after he lost his brave battle to cancer at the age of 45.

Tributes have been flooding in for former Dublin minor footballer and AFL legend Jim Stynes after he lost his brave battle to cancer at the age of 45.

A New York art dealer has been charged in a US$4m fraud case today.

Seán Scully insists his marriage and fatherhood have lifted the gloom in his monumental paintings, reports Marc O’Sullivan

A SIX-FOOT Henri Matisse bronze of a nude woman seen from behind was sold for over $48 million (€34m) in New York City, a record auction price for the artist’s work.

DENMARK’S National Gallery is displaying 40 acrylic paintings by Bob Dylan that have never before been seen in public.

French police say a Picasso lithograph and four paintings have been stolen from a collector’s home in Marseille.

A lone thief stole five art masterpieces worth at least €100m by breaking into a supposedly top security major Paris museum.

Interpol has stepped in to provide assistance in solving the Paris art theft mystery.

A lone thief stole five paintings worth about €100m in an overnight raid on a Paris art museum.

Five paintings including masterpieces by Picasso and Matisse were stolen from a Paris museum today.

JIM STYNES has given an upbeat update on his health after completing two weeks of radiation, declaring that he hopes to conquer cancer by the end of November.

THANKS to two Irish entrepreneurs, the most distant part of France in now one of the easiest to reach, at least from Dublin.

A painting by Henri Matisse sold for €32.1m, a record price for a work by the French artist at auction – at a sale of art from the estate of Yves Saint Laurent, auction house Christie’s said.

A FRENCH-based company headed by Irish personnel will be offering wine-tasting tours in the Languedoc Roussillon region of France this summer.

An exhibition at the Royal Academy looks set to open as scheduled on January 26 after a Russian government agency approved the transport of paintings to London.

Russian authorities have cancelled a major exhibition of French and Russian paintings set to open in London in January, fearing the art could be seized to settle private legal claims, a museum official said today.

Music veteran Elton John and newcomer Corinne Bailey Rae were among the winners at the Mojo music awards.