Disasters & destruction

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

Newsarchive

Iraq war thwarts loans to Louvre for “Babylon” show

Negotiations have lasted five years only to fall through due to security issues

Unescoarchive

Samarra shrine must be rebuilt: Unesco says reconstruction will help unite warring factions

The site is considered one of the holiest in Iraq, containing the remains of two of the Prophet's descendants

Unescoarchive

Samarra mosque at risk from new police barracks

There are fears that the new station will be a target for insurgents; Unesco powerless to protect the World Heritage site

Unescoarchive

“Catalogue of the National Museum of Afghanistan”: recording and illustrating key objects in the Kabul Museum

Unesco has published a record of the 1,600 objects acquired by the institution between 1931 and 1985

Chapmans raise Hell for François Pinault: Recreating a work lost to flames

The original piece was destroyed in a disastrous 2004 warehouse fire

Iraqarchive

Minaret of Ana likely the "obelisk" said to have been lost in Iraq bombings

Professor Alistair Northedge asserts that the minaret is the only structure that fits a description provided by US marines

Iraqarchive

Iraq was turned into the world centre for the destruction and looting of some of humanity’s most ancient symbols of civilisation

And so it came to pass that not a single world renowned site or treasured museum was protected

Artists sue Momart for £20 million

Solicitors say premises were “a disaster waiting to happen”

Samarra mosque's spiral minaret targeted by bombers

Insurgents allegedly staged the attack to prevent US troops using the tower as a vantage point

Iraqarchive

The destruction of culture in Iraq has been enormous; now conservation must be a priority

We can help by providing training in site management techniques, in museology and in conservation

US base has caused "shocking" damage to Babylon

The American contractor that built the infrastructure for a base adjacent to the ancient site is responsible for much of the destruction, says an independent report

New “anti-terrorist” display case for the Mona Lisa

After 500 years, Leonardo’s fragile portrait is starting to warp

Newsarchive

Landslide warning at Macchu Picchu

Geologists have found the land on the steep slope at the back of the fortress is sliding down at a rate of a centimetre a month

Censorshiparchive

Hindu mobs ransack library and attack Sanscrit scholar

An Oxford University Press book on a nationalist hero has been withdrawn from the Indian market

Iraqarchive

Details of National Museum of Iraq looting emerge

While the Warka Vase has been accounted for, reports suggest that the cylinder seal collection has vanished

Philippe de Montebello on the sack of the Iraq Museum: “Is it sensible for all the eggs to be in one basket?”

The Art Newspaper speaks to the director of the Metropolitan about the historical significance of the Iraq Museum's plunder and how disasters of its kind can be dealt with

Iraqarchive

International outrage as Iraq's National Museum is sacked by civilians

American army says it was aware of the risks, but did not protect the building as Iraqi nationals overwhelmed staff who attempted to defend the collection