New York, United States |

Internationally known for her lavish lifestyle and glam taste, silver screen siren Elizabeth Taylor also boasted a playful side, and now some of her personal effects that bared it are hitting the auction block.

Items including a gold vermeil link belt, a sumptuous silk caftan and a studded black leather Versace biker jacket belonging to the late Hollywood legend will travel across the Atlantic on the famed Queen Mary 2 ocean liner, giving guests a first glimpse at Taylor's treasures.

Following the actress' death in 2011 at age 79, a week-long Christie's auction in New York of her vast collection of luxury dresses, jewels and fine art saw total sales topping $156 million.

But this time the items anticipated to go for a wide range of price points show the side of a larger-than-life woman -- known for starring roles in classics like "Cleopatra" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" -- her closest friends and family knew.

"The icon on screen isn't the grandmother that I would hang out with around the house," said her grandson Quinn Tivey, a 33-year-old artist who is an ambassador for The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

"I don't really know Elizabeth Taylor the celebrity," Tivey told AFP aboard the enormous ocean liner his grandmother frequented, on which he will make the week-long journey with the preview of her items.

"To me she was just grandma."

Martin Nolan -- the executive director of Julien's Auctions, which is hosting the sale -- says some items like Taylor's scarves or costume jewelry carry pre-sale estimates of $200 to $400, meaning not only institutions and members of the upper crust will have a chance at taking something home.

"I think people will be surprised that they will be able to actually acquire and afford to have something from the amazing Elizabeth Taylor," he told AFP. 

After their voyage across the Atlantic and to the Newbridge Silverware's Museum of Style Icons in Ireland, Taylor's effects will be taken to California, with bidding December 6-8 online and in person at a Beverly Hills exhibition.

The gold coin-chain belt from Cartier was a gift Taylor gave to her mother to match one of her own, which she engraved with the message: "To My 'Hippy' Mom All my love Elizabeth."

The house estimates the belt could go for between $1,000 and $2,000, while the aforementioned leather jacket -- which Taylor wore in 1992 on Johnny Carson's iconic talk show -- carries an estimated price tag of $4,000 to $6,000.

Tivey remembers growing up watching movies with his grandmother, her frequent advice on his love life -- and even swiping the jacket from Taylor's closet on occasion to give it a try.

He hopes that whoever buys it will "actually wear it" and share her style with the public.

Fascination with Taylor's rich legacy persists because "she was true to herself," Tivey said.

"She was never one to let fear be the deciding factor," he said. "She always followed her heart."

"She always had the courage to do what she thought was right.

mdo/acb

Paris, France | 

Leonardo da Vinci is the star in a blockbuster retrospective opening  at the Louvre museum in Paris to mark 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master.

Some 240,000 people have already reserved their place in line for the exhibition, the biggest ever organised to showcase the Tuscan polymath's indelible contributions to humanity -- with an emphasis on his painting. 

A decade in the planning, the show simply titled "Leonardo da Vinci" groups 162 works, including 24 drawings loaned by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain from the Royal Collection.

The British Museum, the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg and the Vatican have also contributed, as well as, of course, Italy -- after a sometimes acrimonious tug-of-war between Rome and Paris over the loans.

The exhibition in the Hall Napoleon, which runs until February 24, features 10 of the fewer than 20 paintings definitively attributed to the Renaissance master, as well as drawings, manuscripts, sculptures and other objets d'art.

The show walks the visitor through the timeline of the master's peripatetic career under the tutelage of dukes, princes and kings, from Florence to Milan, Venice and Rome, and finally France, where he spent the last three years of his life.

He died in the historic town of Amboise in the Loire Valley on May 2, 1519.

- Two no-shows -

Two standout works are missing from the show, starting with the Mona Lisa.

Organisers decided the world's most famous painting should remain in the Louvre's Salle des Etats -- its normal home -- to help avoid overcrowding.

As it is, the masterpiece attracts nearly 30,000 people a day.

The Mona Lisa's ineffable smile will however beguile visitors in a virtual reality experience at the end of the show.

The other notable no-show is the Salvator Mundi, the work that became the most expensive painting ever sold when it fetched $450 million (400 million euros) at a Christie’s auction in 2017.

Mystery now surrounds the painting -- whose authenticity is disputed by some experts -- as it has not been seen in public ever since the record-shattering sale.

The Louvre has said the museum's request to borrow the work is still pending, but a last-minute appearance would be a stunning surprise.

- The Vitruvian Man - 

The final act in the row between Paris and Rome over Italy's contributions to the show came with a legal effort to halt the loan of the iconic Vitruvian Man drawing.

The Vitruvian Man -- which Italian media say is insured for at least one billion euros -- joined the Louvre show with just days to spare before the opening. It will stay only eight weeks rather than the full four months.

The exhibition curated by the Louvre's Vincent Delieuvin and Louis Frank, the heads of the museum's painting and graphic arts departments, includes infrared reflectographs that offer an insight into the master painter's techniques.

gd/txw

Bet Shemesh, Israel | The remains of a sixth-century Byzantine church dedicated to an unnamed "glorious martyr" with elaborate mosaics, a rare crypt and a large collection of lamps were unveiled in central Israel on Wednesday.

The complex, which spans over a third of an acre, was found during salvage excavations ahead of the construction of a new neighbourhood for the city Bet Shemesh, west of Jerusalem.

The mosaics in the church depict themes from nature, such as leaves, birds and fruit, as well as geometrical elements, with imported capitals topping pillars, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority, which carried out the excavation.

Most of the construction of the church began during the reign of Emperor Justinian, who ruled between 527-565, with a chapel added later under Emperor Tiberius II Constantine, with rare financial support from him, the IAA said in a statement.

An underground burial chamber with two separate staircases leading to and from it was found, making it one of the few churches with fully intact crypts to be found in Israel's limits, said Benjamin Storchan, who directed the excavation for the IAA.

The church was dedicated to a "glorious martyr," whose identity has eluded the researchers working on the find for the past three years, but the "exceptional opulence of the structure and its inscriptions indicate that this person was an important figure," said Storchan.

Diggers also found what they believe to be "the most complete collection of Byzantine glass windows and lamps ever found at a single site in Israel."

The Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, which is hosting a display on some of the finds, said that lighting in churches, often perceived as "the representation of the divine," enhanced the "dramatic environment for a powerful religious experiment."

With its location near Jerusalem, the Church of the Glorious Martyr was most likely a significant pilgrimage site for Christians en route to the Holy City, the museum said.

jjm/mjs/dr

Chon Buri, Thailand | 

Sloshing across a muddy field with men sprinting behind them, prized water buffaloes blow past cheering spectators in eastern Thailand on Sunday in a rare display of bovine speed.

Tractors have largely replaced the big beasts in daily work but farmers in Chonburi have preserved the more than 100-year-old racing custom to mark annual rice plantings.

"Before, we used buffaloes to plough rice fields. When our work was done, we held the buffalo race as relaxation," said owner Thanin Sae-tiew, 52.

"It has since become our tradition."

Pairs of horned buffaloes thunder to the finish line while a racer grasping a red plough tries to hold on until the end or face disqualification -- and excited laughter from the crowd.

It's less about winning the 3,000 baht ($100) prize than pride in victory, though the best buffaloes can fetch higher prices when sold.

And they are treated to fancier food than most livestock.

Racer Noppadol Pornpaipan, 22, says his animals are fed boiled rice, eggs and chicken extract in the evening.

But come race day they get a special meal of rice mixed with a little shark fin soup that supposedly boosts buffalo energy.

The normally slow-moving buffaloes can still be seen dotting the rural landscape but the rise of mechanised farming has made them less essential.

Some worry that younger generations will lose touch with older ways of life but the race provides a way of keeping the history alive.

"I feel good that I'm preserving the Thai buffaloes so they will not disappear," Noppadol said.

spk-joe/mtp

Paris, France |

Thousands of people massed outside the Moulin Rouge caberet on Sunday night for a fireworks and French can-can extravaganza to mark the 130th anniversary of the storied Montmartre institution.

Police blocked off the boulevard for the event, which began with music and a light show projected onto the iconic red windmill, recounting the venue's Belle Epoque origins.

A sole dancer then appeared on the roof, braving the autumn chill in one of the caberet's skimpy sequined costumes -- though she was not topless, presumably a nod to the families in the crowd.

Then, as fireworks boomed overhead -- red, naturally, later mixed with whites and blues -- around 50 long-legged dancers wearing the same colours emerged to perform their famous can-can.

Yiftah Bar-Akiva, an Israeli who has lived in Paris for 11 years, was sipping champagne from a flute glass with friends who came for the party.

"It's as mythical as the Eiffel Tower, it's like a piece of history of the Belle Epoque," he said.

"I don't think it's disrespectful of women, I think it's still art," he added. "It's not like it's a peepshow!"

Joanna Cavarzan travelled from her home near the city of Chartres, not far from Paris, with a friend, Joe McGinty, who was visiting from Toronto.

"I've never been inside, and I was hoping to see a little bit what it was like," Cavarzan said.

But like many in the crowd, she could hardly see the dancers -- no stage had been set up on the boulevard for their show.  

Opened in 1889 -- the same year as the Eiffel Tower was completed -- the Moulin Rouge has become a must-see for millions of tourists to the French capital, even if only from the outside.

The two nightly shows, two hours each, are almost always sold out seven nights a week, 365 nights a year, with tourists and locals attending in roughly even numbers.

The cabaret has also become a touchstone in popular culture, not only with Baz Luhrmann's 2001 hit film but before that in 1952 with John Huston's version starring Zsa Zsa Gabor.

js/har