Many people know that Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a founder of French Impressionism, a master of landscape painting whose works include Impression, Sunrise and Water Lilies. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he created the ponds featuring those water lilies and spent 30 years painting 250 oils of them; that his water-lily work Le Bassin aux Nymphease sold in 2008 4 million dollars; that his painting Cliffs Near Dieppe was stolen not once but...

Many people know that William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a playwright and poet, who wrote Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream and is widely considered to be the greatest dramatist of all time. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he favoured stabbing as a method for killing off his characters; that he is credited with the invention of over 2,000 words and phrases; and that he owned five houses and a public house at the time of his death. Biographic:...