Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti's 'Walking Man I' has become the world's most expensive work of art ever sold at an auction.

The work fetched GBP 65,788,249 (USD 104,327,006) at Sotheby's London auction, setting an international record for the artist as well, Artdaily reported.

Veteran Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Bani-Etemad has been awarded at the Rencontres Internationales du Cinema Heritage in France.

The 54-year-old female director received the event's Prix Henri Langlois for contributing to the international cinema and sharing her passion for films with the young generation, Tehran Times reported.

The American author, JD Salinger, whose novel The Catcher in the Rye caught the imagination of millions throughout the world, has passed away in his New Hampshire home at 91.

The most important American writer to emerge since World War II, who lived in seclusion for more than 50 years, died of natural causes and was in no pain either before or at the time of his death.

Iranian and German stage artists have teamed up to perform a children's play based on a story written by German author Claudia Schreiber.

Sultan and Kotzbrocken have been dramatized by German stage actor Barbel Maier based on a children's book of the same title by Schreiber.

The British Library is set to exhibit the Klencke Atlas, known as the world's largest book, during its summer exhibition of maps.

The 1.75x1.9-meter book, intended to be an encyclopedic summary of the world, was presented to King Charles II on his restoration by Dutch merchants.

Britain's Royal Academy of Arts is set to mount an exhibition of works and original letters by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh.

The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters will display 65 paintings and 30 drawings by Van Gogh, which express the main themes of over 35 original letters written by the acclaimed artist to his family members and other artists.

Iran's Al-Kawthar TV station has held the 2nd International Story of Resistance Film Festival, hosting acclaimed documentary makers from across the globe.

The event, which will close on Jan. 19, 2010 in Beirut, will screen documentaries, musical clips and animations on anti-Zionist resistance movements.