The National Gallery have announced their rediscovery of a portrait of Elizabeth Carter in a private collection. The painting, done by John Fayram circa 1735-1741, shows Carter as the Roman Goddess Minerva (or the Greek Goddess Athena, if you prefer), goddess of wisdom and war. The portrait will be part of of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, which is running from 13 March to 15 June.......

Ahh, art or money? It's something we ponder daily here at Londonist. (Can't we have both?) The big question is also being asked over at the Old Vic by none other than Kevin Spacey and his mate Jeff Goldblum in Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. We're also pondering how to get our hands on tickets for this sure-to-sell-out show. Previews run til Saturday; the show's booking until April. Also Opening Photography fans should pop along to the......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

Yargh, yargh, yargh! Avast. Yargh! Sorry. What is it about pirates that's so compelling? The National Gallery's summer blockbuster, Dutch Portraits in the Age of Rembrandt and Franz Hals, will include the image of a skeleton pored over by surgeons. The skeleton is that of an unknown pirate, who was caught, executed and donated to Dutch science in 1615. So that's what they mean by 15 men on a dead man's chest. Yargh! The......

A portrait by Pablo Picasso has gone on display at Christie's ahead of an auction which, if it goes as expected, will make it one of the top 10 most expensive paintings ever sold. We've spotted the first 'London Fashion Week isn't as good as it used to be' article - do we get a prize? Paul Gasgoigne went on a seven hour 'alcohol fuelled gambling binge' in London this week. London is facing......

Today we present the third and final part in our guide to the best holiday season art exhibitions (read Part 1 or Part 2). National Gallery: Rubens - A Master in the Making Charts the rise of Peter Paul Rubens from a pupil in Antwerp to the leading painter of his time. Why you should see it: You either love him or you loathe him so if you haven’t formed an opinion yet of Reubens,......

Londonist's attention was caught today by an article in the Times headlined London - A Sad MP's Guide. But, don't be fooled, this isn't an article written by some Tory backbencher, detailing his travels around the backstreets of Soho (if only). No, instead this is The Times' assistant editor Mary Ann Sieghart, complaining that Northern members of Parliament constantly "whinge that they have nothing to do in the evenings now that late-night sittings have......