The world's oldest known cave paintings are 45,000 years old — made by Neanderthals

Paintings found in a cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia, have been dated to at least 45,500 years ago — older than any found in Europe. More controversially, red ochre cave markings in Spain have been dated to over 65,000 years, before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe, suggesting Neanderthals were making symbolic art. The urge to create images may be far older than our species.

Source: Aubert et al., Nature (2019) / Science, 'Neanderthal cave art', (2018)