This year's two-month-long conservation project on Michelangelo's The Last Judgement has revealed more about how the masterpiece was created - down to the type of brushes used to paint it.

Researchers working on the fresco in the Sistine Chapel in Rome discovered he used a comb-like multi-tipped brush, which he probably made himself, to create what Vatican Museums director Barbara Jatta described as its "wonderfully sculptural" style.

The unique brush meant paint could be applied over a greater surface more quickly and also created a cross-hatching effect similar to marks left by a chisel on marble sculptures.

The findings are included in a new book, co-edited by Jatta, about the project carried out to remove a white film of calcium lactate -a type of salt formed by the sweat of millions of tourists - from the work.

The number of visitors expected in the first year at the Powerhouse Parramatta museum in Sydney which opens on Saturday. The $640 million museum has been controversial even before opening - chief executive Lisa Havilah stepped aside three months ago after a government investigation into "governance and procurement practices" was announced.

Duncan Grant's final portrait of his friend, artistic collaborator and sometime lover Vanessa Bell has been found more than 60 years after he put pen to paper as she was dying.

The sketch came to light during research for Tate Britain's forthcoming exhibition about the couple and has been donated to the museum at their former home in Charleston, East Sussex, southeast England.

Head of collections Darren Clarke said: "Everything about the drawing itself – its viewpoint, its intimacy and its extraordinary economy – suggests someone sitting quietly beside Vanessa’s bed and drawing the face he had known for half a century."

The drawing will not form part of the Tate show opening in London on November 12 but goes on display for the first time next May at Charleston.

MoMA is not the only New York institution looking to expand abroad.

Museum of Modern Art director Christophe Cherix unveiled its partnership with museums in Paris and Hong Kong last week and the city's Hispanic Society is following a similar path.

The Manhattan museum has signed what it calls "a landmark agreement" with the Spanish city of Valencia establishing its first international outpost which will be home to a loan of more than 220 works by Valencian painter Joaquin Sorolla.

Guillaume Kientz, the society’s director, told the New York Times it was a "win-win-win sort of thing".

He said: "Valencia doesn’t have a collection and it does have space. We have a huge collection and can’t show it all."

The deal sees the Valencia regional government giving about $1 million annually to the society for the duration of the four year loan with an option to renew for another four and it will also get a percentage of sales from the Valencia museum’s shop.

There is something for everyone - including Dachshunds - at a new exhibition in Germany dedicated to the breed.

The show, which opened at Bremen's Kunsthalle on Saturday, includes works inspired by the animals by the likes of Otto Dix, Andy Warhol and David Hockney as well as an "invisible olfactory work" by Camilla Nicklaus-Maurer that can only be picked up by the dog's strong sense of smell.

The Dachshund. An Icon off the Leash runs to March 28 and dogs up to 30 centimetres at the shoulder are allowed in to part of it two days a week.

1 - Spanish sculptor Miquel Navarro died yesterday aged 81, according to the newspaper El Pais. His work can be seen in the Guggenheim in both New York and Bilbao as well as the Pompidou Center in Paris and Madrid's Reina Sofia museum.

2 - An $8 million silver soup tureen is going under the hammer at Christie's in London in December as part of a sale from the collection of Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and Carlos Pedro Blaquier. It is a counterpart to Sotheby's $450 million sale of a dozen masterpieces from the couple's art collection in New York this month which includes Vincent van Gogh’s Châtaigniers en fleurs estimated to make $180 million.

3 - The second Culture for the Planet summit is being held in Hong Kong from this Wednesday to Sunday. Veronica Castillo, director of collection and exhibition at the city's M+ museum which is co-hosting the event, is among the speakers with others from institutions including Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum and the Guggenheim Bilbao.