Emperor Hirohito's explosive war confession revealed the private thoughts of the man who was born a god. Barak Kushner investigates
The Japanese Emperor Hirohito died in January 1989. Discussion about his responsibility for WWII had waned over the decades of peace that followed. However, within a year, everyone was talking about his 'monologue', Dokuhakuroku as it is known in ...
Alexandra Shulman watches the world from Claridge's lobby
I have the writer Kay Thompson's creation, Eloise, to thank for my love of hotels. Certainly it is nothing to do with my personal earliest experience of staying in a gloomy place in Westgate-on-Sea, where I used to be sent as a small child for summer holidays.
Eloise lived on ...
A newly discovered work by the great 14th-century artist, Lorenzo Veneziano, shows the crucial move from the flat Byzantine style to the flesh-and-blood figures of Giotto, says Andrew McKenzie
A magnificent, newly discovered devotional altarpiece has come to light. For the last century, it had been the property of the same Italophile English family and concealed from the eyes of ...
For 70 years, Ferrari has made the sexiest, most-prized sports cars in the world. Mark Beech revs up the engine
Automotive history might have been very different had Enzo Ferrari not seen a motor race when he was just ten years old – and had his father's business not collapsed a few years later. The story is certainly one to ...
The privileged Fahrelnissa Zeid lived her life with the history-makers of the 20th century. But her legacy is these bold paintings of great vibrancy. Rachel Spence tells her story
For Fahrelnissa Zeid, the turning point of her career came with a rejection. Just 27 years old, studying in Paris, the Turkish painter watched in horror as her teacher, Cubist artist ...
Robby the Robot was a star, from the moment he first appeared in the 1950s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. Matthew Sweet goes back to the future
The year is 2257 AD. The place: beyond the limits of our solar system. Commander J. J. Adams is at the helm of United Planets Cruiser C-57D as it makes landfall on the planet ...
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is a staggering new museum, built on a desert island. Its director, Manuel Rabaté, shares his lofty ambitions with Claire Wrathall
In their mission statements, most national museums use the lofty term: 'encyclopaedic'. If anything, Manuel Rabaté, the 41-year-old director of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, ratchets things up a notch. He claims it will be "the ...
Sentenced to death – twice – Sebastiano Ricci was the bad boy of Baroque art. Susan Moore explains how a brush with the law was the making of the Venetian master
By the time Sebastiano Ricci died in Venice in 1734, he was one of the most celebrated painters in Europe. He had also been one of the most peripatetic, constantly on ...
Bruce Berman – movie mogul behind The Matrix and Ocean's Eleven – has a passion. Hugo Daniel hears about his enduring love of American photography
The first-time visitor stepping into the headquarters of Village Roadshow Pictures might find themselves pausing to double-check the address. Where are all the glossy film posters? The walls are hung instead with dozens of striking images ...
Zao Wou-Ki only began to feel truly Chinese when he left his homeland. This was the secret of his success, argues Matthew Wilcox
Who is the most successful Chinese artist? You might think of radical dissident Ai Weiwei, you might consider the merits of the pyrotechnic pioneer Cai Guo-Qiang, or you might reach further back, perhaps as far as the ...
The harvest finally turned in Burgundy's favour this year. Good news for the vintners, says Roy Richards, but not necessarily for drinkers
There is a smile back on the face of the Burgundian vigneron. After five years of harvests deficient in volume, Nature has finally been generous in 2017. Other parts of viticultural France, hit by frost damage, are ...
David Jones was the greatest watercolourist since Blake, says A.N. Wilson, who here unlocks the secrets of one of his finest paintings
David Jones (1895-1974) is perhaps best known, among a devoted but too small band of admirers, as a stone engraver. He was taught by the sculptor-craftsman Eric Gill, and earned his living for some years engraving the ...