Briefly

UNITED KINGDOM

Da Vinci's bear tipped to go for dazzling price

A drawing of a bear's head by Leonardo da Vinci is expected to fetch up to $16.7 million, potentially setting a record, when it heads to auction in July, Christie's, a UK auction house, said on Saturday. The 7 cm square, Head of a Bear is a silverpoint drawing on a pink-beige paper. The auction house says it is "one of less than eight surviving drawings by Leonardo still in private hands outside of the British Royal Collection and the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth". That could beat the 2001 sale for Da Vinci's Horse and Rider for more than $11.2 million, a record for a drawing by the Italian Renaissance master, according to Christie's.

ITALY

Our cousins' traces surface in a cave

The fossil remains of nine Neanderthal men have been found in a cave in Italy, the culture ministry announced on Saturday, a major discovery in the study of our ancient cousins. All the remains found in the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo, on the coast between Rome and Naples, are believed to be those of adults, although one may have been a youth. Eight of them date to between 50,000 and 68,000 years ago, and the oldest could be 90,000 or 100,000 years old, the ministry said.

Agencies Via Xinhua