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Conservators at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery have taken a major step towards solving the mystery of a lost painting by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. The artist painted La Pose Enchantée in 1927, but the picture went missing and is only known from a catalogue photograph (shown top right). Then, in 2013, two later Magritte works were found to be covering parts of La Pose Enchantée, but two quarters remained missing.After x-raying a Magritte in the Norwich Castle Museum's collection, La Condition Humane (1935), Conservators discovered that it too is covering part of La Pose, leaving only one quarter left to fi nd.Above left: Conservators from Norwich Castle Museum with La Condition Humane, 1935New Magritte discovery Images: © Norfolk Museums Service; © CCT; © Museum of London; © British Museum.Shoes made from ocean plastic, the David Bowie Blackstar album cover and the new Tate Modern Switch House are among the contenders in an exhibition of the 70 nominees for the 2016 Beazley Designs of the Year award that will open the Design Museum’s new Kensington High Street home. The new museum opens on November 24.Beazley prize nominees open Design MuseumThe medieval St Kenelm’s in the Cotswolds village of Sapperton is renowned for its extraordinary collection of ornate memorials dating from the 15th and 16th century and its unusual Jacobean carved woodwork. It has now become the 350th church to enter the collection of the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT). The CCT cares for some of England’s fi nest art, architecture and heritage embodied in its churches, which it conserves and ensures remain open for the public. Often the buildings are recycled – one is now a circus training school, another a mental health centre. “Churches have always played an important part in our social lives,” said Sir Simon Jenkins, a CCT Trustee. “As well as providing much needed community spaces, they also contain examples of some of the most beautiful art, architecture and craftsmanship we have in this country. By caring for churches like St Kenelm’s, the Churches Conservation Trust ensures they are conserved and protected for future generations to enjoy”.Below: Detail from St Kenelm’sSt KenelmÕs future assuredSlicing London in half to create Crossrail, Europe’s biggest infrastructure project, has revealed some extraordinary history, and the Museum of London Docklands is going to put the fi nds on show. They include 8,000-year-old Mesolithic fl int tools found in North Woolwich, a Tudor bowling ball from Stepney Green, Roman horse shoes and medieval bone skates found near Liverpool Street Station, 19th-century ginger and jam jars from the site of the Crosse & Blackwell bottling factory near Tottenham Court Road station, and the skeletons of 17th-century plague victims, from Bedlam cemetery, also near Liverpool Street station.“The Crossrail project has given archaeologists a rare opportunity to study previously Crossrail unearths objects spanning 8,000 years of London historyA collection of 16 important lithographs and three aquatints from Picasso’s immediate post-war period have been acquired by the British Museum with the help of the Art Fund. The collection includes several featuring his muse Françoise Gilot, mother of his two children, including The Little Artist, 1954 (above). “These exceptional lithograph and aquatint prints are a signifi cant addition to the British Museum’s holdings of Picasso’s graphic work, one that now stands us among the most important public collections of Picasso in the world,” said Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum.British Museum acquires Picasso post-war collectioninaccessible areas of London,” said Jay Carver, Crossrail lead archaeologist. “This exhibition will bring together some of our oldest and oddest fi nds, and help us bring the stories of 8,000 years of London’s hidden history to light.”The exhibition opens on February 10 and continues until September 3, 2017.Below: Bone skates found near Liverpool Street station12 NADFAS REVIEW / WINTER 2016 www.nadfas.org.ukARTS NEWS