An over-the-top re imagination of 19th century American-born artist James Whistler's iconic Peacock Room is going on display in the Washington museum that is home to the original.

"Filthy Lucre" is painter Darren Waterston's take on the artist's tortured relationship with his patron, shipping tycoon Frederick Leyland, who commissioned him in 1876 to create the Peacock Room in his London home to show off his Chinese porcelain collection.

A 25.59 carat "pigeon blood" ruby sold for a world record $30.33 million at auction in Geneva Tuesday while a rare pink diamond believed to have once belonged to Napoleon's niece fetched $15.9 million, Sotheby's said.

After competitive bidding, the ruby went to an anonymous telephone bidder for 26.25 million Swiss francs (27.3 million euros), with costs.

A Mark Rothko painting sold for $46.5 million Tuesday at a Sotheby's auction in New York, an evening in which several records were set including one for a work by German artist Sigmar Polke.

The Rothko work "Untitled, (Yellow and Blue)", measuring 2.42 meters by 1.86 meters (about eight feet by 6.1 feet) and completed in 1954, had been estimated at between $40 and $60 million.

The United Nations cultural agency on Tuesday condemned "severe damage" caused to heritage sites in Yemen, such as Sanaa's old city, during intense bombing of the rebel-held capital.

"I condemn these destructions and I call on all parties to keep cultural heritage out of the conflict," said UNESCO director general Irina Bokova.

Intersex children, or those born with characteristics of both sexes, must not be subjected to "normalization" surgery without their consent, the Council of Europe said Tuesday.

The human rights organisation also urged states to stop classifying people under the male-female binary.

A Picasso masterpiece and a Giacometti statue smashed world records Monday for the most expensive art sold at auction, fetching more than $179 million and $141 million respectively in New York.

Pablo Picasso oil painting, "The Women of Algiers (Version 0)," sold for $179,365,000 after 11 and a half minutes of furious bidding from four to five prospective buyers at Christie's, where two auction rooms were packed.

Ariana Miyamoto entered the Miss Universe Japan beauty contest after a mixed-race friend committed suicide. And she endured abuse after winning the crown because of her skin colour.

Far from being put off by the backlash, Miyamoto resolved to use her new-found fame to help fight racial prejudice -- in much the same way British supermodel Naomi Campbell broke down cultural barriers in the fashion industry a generation ago.

The United States is becoming a little less Christian, and a little more unaffiliated to any faith, a major study on the nation's changing religious landscape suggested Tuesday.

"The United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world," with 70.6 percent of its population, or 173 million adults, identifying as Christian last year, the Pew Research Center said.

Overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey's top religious authority Diyanet said it has published thousands of copies of the Koran translated into Armenian for the first time, as it seeks to reach out to minority communities.

Yuksel Salman, director of Diyanet's religious publications office, denied the publication of the Muslim holy book in Armenian has any link to the 100th anniversary last month of mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

It is Iran's most notorious jail, renowned for housing political activists, but if Tehran's mayor has his way Evin Prison will close and be transformed into a public park.

A concrete monstrosity, guarded by razor wire atop high walls on the edge of a highway in the north of the capital, Evin has been a target of reports by rights monitors such as Amnesty International, alleging maltreatment of inmates by authorities there.