Half-a-million dollars worth of antiquities previously in the collection of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art have been returned to Iraq as part of the on-going investigation into disgraced London-based art trafficker Robin Symes.

The three objects, returned in a ceremony at the Manhattan District Attorney's office, are two Babylonian ceramic busts and an ancient alabaster vessel decorated with two carved rams.

They are just a small part of a $58 million haul of 135 objects seized by the DA's Antiquities Trafficking Unit during its investigation into Symes who died in 2023, having made a fortune selling mostly Greek and Roman artifacts.

The value of the artworks guaranteed by Christie’s in its New York May sales, up 17% on the comparable sales last year. A guarantee means the auction house promises the seller a minimum price if the work fails to sell. See our in-depth coverage of the marquee sales here.

French police accidentally solved an almost four-decades old mystery when they stumbled upon a stolen bust of rock star Jim Morrison during an anti-corruption case.

The marble memorial to The Doors frontman was made by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin in 1981 to mark the 10th anniversary of his death only to be stolen from his grave in Paris in 1988.

The Financial and Anti-Corruption Brigade of the Directorate of Judicial Police of the Prefecture of Police posted a picture of the bust, covered in graffiti from fans of the singer, on its instagram page.

Morrison's grave draws legions of fans to the city's Père-Lachaise cemetery which is also the final resting place of singer Edith Piaf and writer Oscar Wilde.

Unlike Wilde’s tomb by Jacob Epstein, Morrison’s last resting place lacked a focal point until Mikulin decided to create one. “It was a strange place where about a hundred people came every day and all of them looked into a hole,” he told Croatian broadcaster HRT.

Earlier this year Leipzig's Grassi Museum unveiled its latest exhibit - a bronze cast of the Venus Medici - and now reports in Germany suggest they have a prudish civil servant to thank for it going on show.

The Berliner Zeitung reports the cast had been on display in a government office in Berlin for more than 10 years until it was removed after an unnamed civil servant complained it was sexist - prompting its exile to Leipzig.

The work, a copy of the marble sculpture of the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite which is on show in Florence's Uffizi Gallery, has a chequered history to say the least.

The bronze nude was part of the art collection amassed by Nazi leader Hermann Goring and was sunk in a lake near his estate, to prevent it falling into the hands of the advancing allies in 1945, where it stayed until divers recovered it in 1990.

1 - A pastel study of ballet dancers by Edgar Degas has gone on show in London's National Gallery as part of a trio of new acquistions marking its bicentenary. The other works include the first painting by 19-century German Romantic painter Carl Gustav Carus to enter a UK public collection.

2 - New York's Whitney museum has defended its decision to cancel a pro-Palestinian performance piece as "clear and necessary". Curators and artists taking part in its Independent Study Program have accused the museum of censorship.

3 - All change at Phillips where Cheyenne Westphal is stepping down as Global Chairwoman after eight years in the role. Also out is Jean-Paul Engelen, its President in the Americas since 2022, who is joining Acquavella gallery in New York.