A terracotta statue dating back to about 200 BC has been returned to the Chinese authorities after being intercepted by customs in Switzerland, the Swiss government said Friday.

The statue from the Han dynasty measures about 47 centimeters (18.5 inches) and is thought to be of a servant, the culture ministry said in a statement.

A task force investigating the provenance of priceless paintings found in a Nazi-era art hoard said Friday it had received more than 200 queries about specific works by possible heirs.

The head of the panel of experts, Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, said there had been a strong response to its call for the families of suspected victims of art looting under Hitler to come forward and stake claims.

In the unlikely setting of one of Italy’s mafia heartlands, a major exhibition of modern artworks by and about women has opened with organizers billing it as the biggest ever of its kind.

Featuring the work of more than 80 female artists from all over the world, the "I am Woman" collection is the latest brainchild of master of provocation Antonio Manfredi, the director of the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in Casoria.

Christie's strengthened its foothold in the Indian art market Thursday with only its second sale in the country, showcasing a range of work by homegrown modern artists.

The London-based auction house offered 78 lots at Mumbai's luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel and raised 752.7 million rupees ($12.04 million), exceeding estimates, following its first sale in the same venue last year.

Pro-democracy protesters have vowed to rebuild the famous "Lennon Wall" which sat at the heart of Hong Kong's main protest camp, after it was swept clear by police.

The wall at the center of the camp became a patchwork of thousands of multi-colored sticky notes carrying messages of support for protesters -- an emotive symbol of the pro-democracy movement that paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for more than two months.

The Catholic Church in Australia on Friday said that obligatory celibacy may have contributed to priests abusing children, and recommended that clergy should be given "psycho-sexual" training.

In a landmark report, an Australian Catholic Church body dealing with the legacy of child sex abuse added that some church institutions and their leaders turned a blind eye to what was going on for years.

In one painting, the Ramones stand together on top of a globe as if the band is larger than life. In another, the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious is chased out of the infamous Chelsea Hotel.

The paintings are part of a new exhibition in New York of Dee Dee Ramone, the bassist and songwriter of the legendary punk band, who had a little-known visual-arts side that he pursued in the years before his death in 2002.

Fidel Castro has been awarded China's version of the Nobel Peace Prize, reports said Thursday, with a paper close to the ruling Communist Party hailing the former Cuban leader's "important contributions" to world peace.

Castro bested more than 20 nominees including South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional group led by Moscow and Beijing, to win this year's "Confucius Peace Prize", the state-run Global Times reported.

A New Zealand bar manager is due to appear in a Myanmar court Thursday after he was arrested for allegedly insulting religion by using an image of the Buddha wearing headphones in a promotion, police said.

The promotional poster, which appeared on the bar's Facebook page, sparked outrage on social media in the predominantly Buddhist nation, which has seen a surge in religious nationalism in recent months.

Christie's hopes to consolidate its foothold in the Indian art market Thursday with only its second sale in the country, showcasing a range of work by homegrown modern artists.

The London-based auction house is offering 80 lots at Mumbai's luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel, all by Indian artists, following its first sale at the same venue last year that raised $16.3 million.