A model of Pablo Picasso's famed Chicago sculpture will be auctioned next month and Christie's estimates it will sell for between $25 million and $35 million.

The late Spanish artist created the piece, named "Tete," between 1962 and 1964. The iron and sheet metal model that goes to auction on Nov. 4 in New York is 41 ½ inches (11 centimeters) tall and 27 ½ inches (0.69 meters) wide. It was later made into the 65-foot (20-meter)-tall, welded-iron sculpture unveiled on Aug. 15, 1967 in Chicago's downtown Daley Plaza.

Activist shareholder Dan Loeb Wednesday launched an all-out attack on the management of art auctioneers Sotheby's, calling for a new chief executive and criticizing company expenses.

Loeb, chief executive of hedge fund Third Point, released a blistering letter to Sotheby's chief executive William Ruprecht in which he said the auction house, which traces its history to 1744, had fallen behind rival Christie's in key emerging markets, Internet sales and the growing modern art segment.

A portrait of Nelson Mandela by British artist Richard Stone and a portrayal of him playing the role of Jesus at the Last Supper are some of the works on display in London's "We Love Mandela" exhibition.

Some 22 artists, all South African with the exception of Stone, are displaying around 50 works reflecting the "emotions of people", their feelings and ideas about South Africa's first black president, exhibition curator Natalie Knight told Agence France Presse.

Military cemeteries around the world housing American soldiers who died in key battles during the First and Second World Wars were temporarily closed from Tuesday due to the U.S. government shutdown.

The move affects some 20 cemeteries in France, Belgium, Britain, Italy, Tunisia and Mexico which serve as the final resting place for troops who died in landmark campaigns such as the Normandy D-Day landings, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) said on its website.

A patriotic Russian group on Tuesday called for President Vladimir Putin to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his Syria diplomacy, claiming he was more deserving of the award than laureate U.S. President Barack Obama.

A group that lists senior Russian officials among its members announced at a news conference that it had written to the Nobel prize committee backing Putin for the prize awarded to Obama in 2009.

The world is aging so fast that most countries are not prepared to support their swelling numbers of elderly people, according to a global study being issued Tuesday by the United Nations and an elder rights group.

The report ranks the social and economic well-being of elders in 91 countries, with Sweden coming out on top and Afghanistan at the bottom. It reflects what advocates for the old have been warning, with increasing urgency, for years: Nations are simply not working quickly enough to cope with a population graying faster than ever before. By the year 2050, for the first time in history, seniors older than 60 will outnumber children younger than 15.

Books about Margaret Thatcher, Roman Britain and bumblebees are among finalists for Britain's leading nonfiction book prize.

Charles Moore's "Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography," Charlotte Higgins' portrait of ancient Britain, "Under Another Sky," and "A Sting in the Tale" by bee conservationist Dave Goulson are on the shortlist for the Samuel Johnson Prize.

"Who Asked You?" (Viking), by Terry McMillan

Terry McMillan treads familiar territory in her latest novel, "Who Asked You?" Four sisters and their families struggle through life, love and real-world crises.

Jews in the United States are overwhelmingly proud to be Jewish, yet nearly one in five of them describe themselves as having no religion, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Tuesday.

The gap is generational, with 32 percent of Jewish Millenials identifying as Jewish on the basis of ancestry, ethnicity or culture -- compared with 93 percent of Jews born in 1914-27 who identified on the basis of their faith.

A Bhutanese film directed by a monk opens Asia's largest cinema festival in South Korea on Thursday, a selection organizers say celebrates the diversity of talent in a region where box office takings are overshadowing Hollywood.

"Vara: A Blessing" directed by Khyentse Norbu -- who will miss the festival because he is taking part in a silent mountain retreat -- is the first of 301 movies to be screened at the 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).