Restoration work on a 17th-century portrait at the Amsterdam Museum has turned up a little bit of history - one of the earliest depictions of a tattoo in Western European painting.

The 1674 work, believed to be by Dutch painter Wallerant Vaillant, shows a group of merchants including Wessel Smits whose sleeve is pulled up revealing the image of a comet inked on his wrist.

Judith van Gent, head of collections and research at the museum, said it was "a remarkable find" to see a tattoo at a time they were "considered 'not done' for the citizens of 17th-century Amsterdam; they were associated with sailors, criminals, or outsiders."

She believes the tattoo may be a reference to a comet seen in the skies above the Netherlands in 1618 around the time of Smits' birth, adding: "In any case, he attached so much importance to it that he wanted to have his portrait painted with it."

The painting is on show at the museum to March 1.

The number of books and audiobooks in the collection at Espace Gabrielle Chanel in the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. Designed by Japanese architect Kazunari Sakamoto, it is the first public library dedicated to contemporary art in mainland China.

The Wallace Collection's unlikely role as a stage for wartime diplomacy will be revisited in a new exhibition recalling when the walls of the historic London gallery were hung with red flags and portraits of Joseph Stalin.

The gallery, which is famously home to Frans Hals' The Laughing Cavalier, saw its collection taken away for safety when the Second World War broke out in 1939 and its empty rooms used to host two shows in 1942 supporting the country's Soviet allies.

One of the shows, 25 Years of Progress, was organized by architect Erno Goldfinger and transformed the empty galleries into immersive information halls with banners, photomontages and statistics praising the Soviet war effort.

The display, which opens in April, is part of the newly announced 2026 season which also includes an exhibition of paintings by wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill whose wife Clementine led the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund which benefited from the shows.

1 - Curator Glenn Adamson has teamed up with philanthropists Abigail Klem Spector and Warren Spector to launch a $10,000 craft prize. The winner of the first Spector Craft Prize will see their work join the collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, founded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton, in Bentonville, Arkansas.

2 - Four more people, two men and two women, have been arrested by French police investigating the $102 million jewelry theft from the Louvre last month. All four are from the Paris region as are four other suspects who have been charged. No trace has been found of the stolen jewels.

3 - Simon Castets has been named executive director of the New York-based Keith Haring Foundation. He will leave New York's Swiss Institute to oversee the foundation's collection of the artist's work and the millions of dollars of grants it awards.

4 - The curator of next year's Sydney Biennale has reportedly upset donors to the Art Gallery of New South Wales by speaking out in support of Palestine at an event in Japan. Emirati princess, Hoor Al Qasimi, told Australia's Financial Review she did not "want to cause any problems for the art gallery or any institution".