Disasters & destruction

Islamic State seizes control of Palmyra

Syrian government forces withdraw leaving archaeological site under serious threat

Yemen’s historic sites damaged in airstrikes after ceasefire fails

Unesco chief condemns attacks, urges all side to keep heritage out of the conflict

Nepal’s cultural heritage celebrated in New York

The Rubin Museum of Art is showing art, organising tours and hosting events to help support the earthquake ravaged country

Louvre president shows solidarity with Iraq and Tunisia

Jean-Luc Martinez says attacks on cultural heritage marks "turning point" for universal museums

Lawnews

Chaos in the courts as insurers fight to recover Superstorm Sandy losses

Three lawsuits allege that a storage facility company, a subsidiary of Christie’s, failed to take proper precautions, despite urgent warnings

Museums in Europe and US draw up rescue plans for ravaged sites in Iraq

France takes the lead as calls grow for co-ordinated response after attacks by fanatics on Assyrian royal cities

Islamic State brings in bulldozers and explosives to reduce Nimrud to rubble

Assault on the seat of Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II could be the worst case of deliberate destruction of an archaeological site in living memory

Clandon Park, a historic house in south of England, suffers devastating blaze

National Trust staff and firefighters salvage paintings and furniture but much is feared lost

Nepal’s most important heritage feared destroyed by catastrophic earthquake

Unesco assesses damage to Kathmandu Valley’s World Heritage Sites and Italy offers expert help

Islamic State video shows blowing up of Ashurnasirpal’s palace

This would be the greatest cultural loss since the Second World War

Cultural heritage at heart of propaganda battle in Iraq

Following vandalism at Mosul museum and Nergal Gate, Iraqi government says IS has destroyed ancient sites at Nimrud, Hatra and Khorsabad

Booksarchive

Lost libraries and broken Buddhas: war, iconoclasm and social media

The history of cultural destruction as a propaganda tool

Commentarchive

Development, tourism and neglect endanger sites as much as conflict and natural disasters

Does Unesco have the power to stop the decline of crucial heritage sites?

How to put Monet back together again: restoration after vandalism

Tiny paint flakes from damaged work give clues to artist’s technique

Tate finds 370-year-old bullet hole in Charles I statue

The sculpture was famously attacked by Parliamentarians shortly after the outbreak of the English Civil War

Purposeful destruction: Smashing art at the Tate Britain

Tate Britain traces the driving forces and ideologies behind a 500-year history of iconoclasm

Newsarchive

Syrian war’s devastating toll on antiquities

Unesco places major national heritage sites on danger list as ground combat, air strikes and looting reduce ancient settlements to rubble

Art and the appetite for destruction: Histories of British Iconoclasm on now at Tate Britain

Tate Britain examines the history of those who have targeted art, from Henry VIII to the present

Heritage caught in the crossfire in wake of Arab Spring

From Macedonia to Mali, the culture of the Islamic world is in an ideological and territorial struggle

Newsarchive

Germany supports research into Russia’s wartime losses

Archives of the western allies will be searched for clues

Another casualty of the culture wars

Damage to the Egyptian Museum is just the latest example of the politicisation of archaeology.

Newsarchive

Terracotta warriors survive Chile earthquake

A group of the soldiers were on loan to the La Moneda Palace in Santiago

Mona Lisaarchive

How the Mona Lisa almost came to a watery end at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Faulty fire sprinkler “rained on” Leonardo’s portrait, reveals former director

First evidence of damage to Gaza’s cultural sites emerges

Antiquities museum hit; fears grow for excavated archaeology.

Censorshiparchive

Terrorism exhibition cancelled at Chelsea Art Museum

Museum curator resigns over claims of censorship