MUNICH, Germany, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - A chic glass building, all curvy lines, the new BMW exhibition centre opened its doors over the weekend to thousands curious to take in the German carmaker's ultimate marketing experience.

More than 40,000 visitors came to admire the latest models, learn about new technologies or simply stroll around the 15,000 square-metre (161,400 square-foot) 'BMW Welt' (World), built on the site of the carmaker's original factory founded in 1916.

BILBAO, Spain, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Bilbao celebrated the 10th anniversary Friday of its futuristic Guggenheim Museum, which helped transform this industrial Basque city into a cultural capital, with the inauguration of a massive new work of art outside.

The 'Red Arches', a huge metal structure over La Salve bridge next to the titanium shingles and swooping form of the museum itself, was lit up in a night-time ceremony.

'It's a kind of door,' said French painter and sculpture Daniel Buren who designed it.

BILBAO, Spain, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - Bilbao will on Friday mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Guggenheim museum which helped transform this Basque city from a rusty industrial place in northern Spain into a buzzy cultural capital.

The Frank Gehry designed building, with its titanium shingles and swooping form, has drawn an average of one million visitors per year, far above the 250,000 to 500,000 expected by authorities when it opened in 1997.

LONDON, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) - Anne Enright won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, one of the literary world's most prestigious awards, for "The Gathering", the committee awarding the prize announced on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old Irishwoman beat favourites Ian McEwan, who won the prize in 1998, and Lloyd Jones for the 50,000-pound (102,000-dollar, 72,000-euro) prize awarded to the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.

LONDON, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) - Irishwoman Anne Enright was awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, one of the literary world's most prestigious awards, for her family epic "The Gathering" on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old beat favourites Ian McEwan, who won the award in 1998, and Lloyd Jones to the 50,000-pound (72,000-euro, 102,000-dollar) prize, awarded to the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.

MADRID, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Spain's Prado museum launched a more detailed version of its Internet site Monday ahead of the opening at the end of the month of a long-awaited new annex which will extend floor space by half.

Available in 12 languages, www.museodelprado.es provides online access to a greater number of works that comprise the Madrid museum's vast collection as well as a search engine that eases consultation of its database.

MANDALAY, Myanmar, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - As one of Myanmar's most beloved comedy acts, the 'Moustache Brothers' have made a living by risking prison every night with their biting parodies of the ruling junta.

But their luck ran out two weeks ago when the military clamped down on anti-government protests that posed the biggest challenge to the regime in nearly two decades.

Security forces on September 25 swept into the ramshackle home where they perform in Mandalay and arrested Par Par Lay -- the most outspoken of the trio, also known as Moustache Brother Number One.

PARIS, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - France's culture minister called Sunday for tougher penalties for vandalism against works of art after drunken intruders seriously damaged a painting by Impressionist painter Claude Monet in Paris.

The damage was done overnight Saturday to Monet's painting "Le pont d'Argenteuil" (The bridge at Argenteuil), after a break-in at the Musee d'Orsay, on the Left Bank.

"We have to see how we can toughen the penalties when there are break-ins to museums, churches and monuments," said Culture Minister Christine Albanel after visiting the museum to inspect the damage.

STOCKHOLM, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) - The 2007 Nobel prize season kicks off Monday with the announcement of the medicine prize and runs through October 15, with the fight against climate change tipped for the prestigious Peace Prize.

As is tradition, the Nobel prize committees are keeping mum ahead of the much-awaited announcements, leaving observers to engage in a wild guessing game.

PARIS, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) - Paris city hall on Monday blamed slack security for an incident in which a drunken gang broke into the city's Musee d'Orsay and punched a hole in a painting by Impressionist artist Claude Monet.

'It appears a lapse in security, during the museum's closing hours, made this stupid act of vandalism possible,' Christophe Girard, deputy mayor for culture, said in a statement.

PARIS, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - France's culture minister called Sunday for tougher penalties for vandalism against works of art after drunken intruders seriously damaged a painting by Impressionist painter Claude Monet in Paris.

The damage was done overnight Saturday to Monet's painting 'Le pont d'Argenteuil' (The bridge at Argenteuil), after a break-in at the Musee d'Orsay, on the Left Bank.

PARIS, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - A painting by the French impressionist Claude Monet was 'severely damaged' by intruders who broke overnight into the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, the French culture ministry said Sunday.

'Le pont d'Argentueil' (The bridge at Argenteuil) was painted in 1875 and shows sailboats moored before a bridge over the river Seine west of Paris.

The canvas was 'ripped over at least 10 centimetres (four inches),' the ministry said.

GORBIO, France, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - Inhabitants of a picturesque French village overlooking the Mediterrean are bitterly divided over how to respond to a bequest from one of India's most famous living artists.

Syed Haider Raza, 85, who has lived in France since 1949, has offered to leave his personal collection of paintings to the municipality of Gorbio, a mediaeval village near the Italian border which he has made his adopted home.

MADRID, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Visitors to Madrid's prestigious Prado Museum will be allowed to enter free of charge for at least two hours a day from next month, the museum announced Tuesday.

The Prado, which houses works by some of Spain's most important artists, such as Velazquez and Goya, is already free to the public on Sundays. Admission on other days costs six euros.

From November, entry will be free from 6:00pm to 8:00pm from Tuesday to Saturday, and from 5:00pm to 8:00pm on Sundays, a spokeswoman for the museum said. The museum is closed on Mondays.

PARIS, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of well-wishers paid a final tribute on Wednesday to Marcel Marceau, the world-famous mime artist, who was buried in Paris.

Marceau, who was credited with single-handedly resurrecting the art form of mime after World War II, died in the southern town of Cahors on Saturday at the age of 84.

The former chief rabbi of France, Rene-Samuel Sirat, led the ceremony reading out prayers in French and Hebrew.

PARIS, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - Marcel Marceau, the French mime artist who for 60 years transfixed international audiences with his stage persona Bip the Clown, has died at the age of 84, relatives said Sunday.

Marceau, who is credited with single-handedly resurrecting the art form of mime after World War II, died Saturday evening 'surrounded by his family,' his daughter Camille Marceau told AFP.

Further details would be disclosed later, she said, as well as the arrangements for his funeral at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in central Paris.

PARIS, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - Marcel Marceau, the French mime artist who for 60 years transfixed international audiences with his stage persona Bip the Clown, has died at the age of 84, relatives said Sunday.

Marceau, who is credited with single-handedly resurrecting the art form of mime after World War II, died Saturday evening 'surrounded by his family,' his daughter Camille Marceau told AFP.

Further details would be disclosed later, she said, as well as the arrangements for his funeral at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in central Paris.

PARIS, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - The French mime artist Marcel Marceau has died at the age of 83, one of his children told AFP on Sunday.

Marceau, whose real name was Marcel Mangel, was one of the best loved exponents of the art of mime in the world.

He gained fame in 1947 for his creation of Bip, a sad, white-faced clown in a striped jumper and a battered silk opera hat.

In 1978 he founded the Ecole de Mimodrame in Paris.

BRUSSELS, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - Belgium's Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels opened Friday a major exhibition of almost 60 works by the 17th century Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens.

The exhibition, 'Rubens, A Genius at Work,' gathers masterpieces from the world's great museums -- the Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The show, one of the major art attractions of the year in Belgium, is the fruit of four years of research and restoration by a team of experts.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - The 40-foot high wooden statue that becomes the flaming centerpiece of Nevada's annual Burning Man arts festival was given a baptism of fire ahead of schedule, police said Tuesday.

An arsonist set light to the figure early Tuesday as thousands of revelers at the festival in the Black Rock Desert, 90 miles (150 km) north of Reno, gazed at the lunar eclipse, police said.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - Paintings inspired by the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison have been donated by Colombian artist Fernando Botero to the University of California, Berkeley, officials said Tuesday.

A spokeswoman said Botero and officials at the northern California university were close to finalising details for the gift, valued at 10 to 15 million dollars, which will be housed at the University's art museum.

LONDON, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's biggest arts festival, this year broke its attendance record by selling 1.7 million tickets, organisers said Tuesday.

Sales were up by 10 percent on 2006 for the event, which ended Monday after three weeks of diverse performances including drama, comedy, dance and music.

An estimated 18,626 performers took part this year, in 31,000 performances at more than 2,000 shows dotted around the Scottish capital.

'Ultimately, the Fringe is a self-regulating festival,' said director Jon Morgan.

EDINBURGH, Aug 20, 2007 (AFP) - A dwarf performer at the Edinburgh fringe festival had to be rushed to hospital after his penis got stuck to a vacuum cleaner during an act that went horribly awry.

Daniel Blackner, or 'Captain Dan the Demon Dwarf', was due to perform at the Circus of Horrors at the festival known for its oddball, offbeat performances.

The main part of his act saw him appear on stage with a vacuum cleaner attached to his member through a special attachment.

BRATISLAVA, Aug 20, 2007 (AFP) - Slovakian artist Julius Koller, the pioneer of conceptual art in the former Czechoslovakia and an eminent painter, graphic artist and photographer has died aged 68, the CTK news agency reported Monday.

Koller, who was born in May 1939 in Piestany, in western Slovakia, died on Friday, the agency said.

He was among a band of artists from the former Czechoslovakia who strove to end the country's cultural isolation in the 1960s.

EDINBURGH, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - Three crews of South Korean breakdancers have scored hit shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, underlining the nation's depth of talent and showing hip-hop moves did not die out in the 1980s, an expert said Friday.

'Ballerina Who Loves B-Boyz', staged by the Skywalk company, tells the story of a classical dancer who becomes enchanted with breakdancing, or b-boying, before breaking away from her restrictive background.

New Event, come join us

EDINBURGH, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - A Scottish Gaelic feature film, which depicts a boy's estrangement from his Celtic culture, premiered Thursday, as the language approaches a potential turning point in the nation's new political landscape.

'Seachd -- The Inaccessible Pinnacle', filmed amid rocky peaks and glassy seas on the north-western Isle of Skye, shows a young boy, Aonghas, played by Padruig Moireasdan, struggling to cope with his parents' death in a climbing accident.

EDINBURGH, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - Critics often said former prime minister Tony Blair brought a touch of theatre to Downing Street, but now the tables have been turned thanks to two musicals at the Edinburgh Fringe devoted to him.

'Tony! The Blair Musical' and 'Tony Blair -- The Musical' both take an irreverent look at Blair's 10 years in power, barely six weeks after he stepped down and Gordon Brown took over the country's top job.

EDINBURGH, Aug 14, 2007 (AFP) - Actors are staging Shakespeare on a bouncy castle and comedy in a portable toilet as shows at the Edinburgh Fringe leave traditional theatres behind and move into a string of oddball venues.

The world's biggest arts festival, which runs to August 27, is a must for enthusiasts of grassroots drama, but with audiences facing a choice of 2,000 shows performers need a clear selling point to pull in the crowds.

EDINBURGH, Aug 14, 2007 (AFP) - Actors at the Edinburgh Fringe have always pushed the boundaries of convention, but this year many are ripping up the script and moving out of theatres altogether to bizarre venues like portable toilets and inflatable bouncy castles.

The world's biggest arts festival, which runs to August 27, is a must for enthusiasts of grassroots drama but, with audiences facing a choice of some 2,000 shows, performers need a clear selling point to market their shows.

LONDON, Aug 5, 2007 (AFP) - One of the world's largest arts events, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, began Sunday, with 2,000 shows and 31,000 performances expected over the course of the next three weeks.

Known for its satirical and often eccentric, close-to-the-knuckle flavour, the Fringe is the unofficial, but now more well known, version of the Edinburgh International Festival, which runs from August 10 to September 2.