With artwork sprawled on queen-sized beds, hung in front of television sets and even placed on toilet counters, Hong Kong's Asia Contemporary Art Show has an unusual take on what constitutes an art gallery.

Hosted in a luxury hotel, the bi-annual fair caters for emerging artists hoping to break into global markets and the unorthodox venue is an attempt to reduce costs in a city fast becoming known as an international arts hub but where sky-high rents pose a challenge for artists and galleries.

Best-selling British author Alexander McCall Smith is to pen a new version of Jane Austen's classic novel "Emma" with a 21st century twist, his publisher announced on Friday.

McCall Smith, who has sold over 20 million copies of his "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, said being commissioned to re-write Austen's 1815 original was "like being asked to eat a box of delicious chocolates".

The biggest exhibition of Matisse's paper cut-outs -- a technique the French artist invented in his final years -- is going on show in London, the Tate Modern gallery announced Friday.

"Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs" brings together around 120 works made between 1943 and his death in 1954.

Elite auction house Sotheby's on Friday adopted a poison-pill defense strategy to fend off a challenge by investor Dan Loeb's hedge fund Third Point.

Sotheby's announced a plan to expand its share base in a rights issue that aimed to weaken Loeb's push to force out the company's chairman and chief executive William Ruprecht, and take a seat on the board for himself.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' schooling, added another award to a growing list on Friday.

She was given the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award, named after the Russian investigative journalist who was shot dead seven years ago next Monday.

An Italian weekly said in its Friday edition that a new painting by Leonardo da Vinci of Renaissance noblewoman Isabella d'Este has been reliably authenticated with carbon dating.

The portrait, which was believed to have been either lost or never even painted, belongs to an Italian family which kept it in the vault of a Swiss bank, the Sette magazine reported.

A Chinese investment firm on Thursday announced plans to resurrect London's Crystal Palace, once the largest glass structure in the world.

The planned £500 million ($800 million, 600 million euro) re-creation by the ZhongRong Group is on the same size and scale as Joseph Paxton's original cast iron and plate glass masterpiece.

Swedish inventor and scholar Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), who made a vast fortune from his invention of dynamite in 1866, ordered the creation of the Nobel prizes in his will.

His 1895 testament stipulated his fortune was to be placed in a fund destined to honour "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".

World-famous, reclusive artist Banksy is loose on the streets of New York, hosting a unique show that has whipped up excitement among hipsters and the chattering classes.

The England-based graffiti maestro, who has never been formally identified, has promised to unveil a new piece of art on each day of the month somewhere in the city.

With the magical sound of wooden flutes, the scent of incense, and the warm Andean sun making shadow patterns across the rolling hills, this event has all the hallmarks of a happy, festive occasion. Families spread out picnics; strolling musicians and vendors sell cotton candy, toys, flowers and food.

But this celebration is taking place in a cemetery, el Cemeterio de Nueva Esperanza, one of the largest cemeteries in the world. And the event is the Day of the Dead, celebrated throughout Latin America on Nov. 1, a day after American kids go trick-or-treating for Halloween.