Arts and history in the news

Four women were among the first students to graduate from Birmingham University in 1901 - and the presentation ceremony was recorded on recently discovered archive film. BBC

The Spanish government is to compensate citizens who were forced to flee abroad as children during the 1930s civil war. BBC

Auschwitz was liberated 60 years ago this week, but it is fresh in the minds of its victims. Our correspondent reports from a centre in Toronto that helps them. The Times

Forget hype, it is recommendations that really boost a novel. The Times

WHEN YOU purchase a Chinese-made television set, which may be hiding its true identity behind a Japanese brand name, you are paying homage to Zhao Ziyang. The Times

The Louvre authorities have abandoned their objections to scenes for the film version of the thriller The Da Vinci Code being shot in the museum. The Guardian

Colonial attitudes linger, finding their most xenophobic expression among liberal defenders of free speech. The Guardian

The discovery that ancient artefacts sacred to Jewish history are forgeries has sent shockwaves through the museum world. But was the gang behind the scam only interested in cash, or did they have other motives? Rachel Shabi investigates The Guardian

Michelangelo's David is meant to be a representation in marble of the perfect male form. So why did his creator not make him - how would one say - a little better endowed? The Guardian

Lee Miller started out as a Vogue model, but by 1930 she had moved behind the lens to take piercing photographs - culminating in her rage-fuelled portraits of Nazi kitsch. Fiona MacCarthy reports The Guardian

On the eve of Russia's first biennale of contemporary art, Sarah Walden visited Moscow's museums and discovered that a lack of funding can be a good thing. The Guardian