Disasters & destruction

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

Artists lead anti-war protests as the US prepares to invade Iraq

Polls show the public could not care less what the art world thinks

Iraqarchive

Iraqi government's dam across Tigris will bring to an end the ancient city of Assur

The ancient Assyrian empire, along with over a hundred other heritage sites, will face detrimental flooding

Unescoarchive

"An absolute political priority": Bamiyan Buddhas may be rebuilt

Unesco will convene an international meeting next month to discuss reconstruction

Newsarchive

Destruction of Croatian monuments ruled a war crime

Yugoslav air force guilty of destroying historic monuments in Dubrovnik

Slow progress on restoring war-torn Croatia

Work is underway, but worst hit town Vukovar still 'deserted'

Unveiled: the newly restored Rothko Chapel

A $1.8 million project saves both paintings and the contemplative space designed by the artist himself

Venice archive

How to save the stones of Venice?

The sculpture that adorns the churches and palaces of Venice is being damaged beyond retrieval by pollution and vandalism

How the British Museum's maintenance procedures for the Parthenon marbles have changed

After the sculptures' surfaces were damaged in the 1930s due to improper care, the museum has cleaned up its act

The director of one of Italy’s top restoration laboratories responds to denunciations of work carried out on Leonardo's Last Supper

Bonsanti defends the twenty-year project that hoped to breathe life back into the wreck of one of Leonardo's masterworks

Environmental protection in Russia, aqua alta on the Neva

Unlike Venice, St Petersburg is building a flood barrier, but needs more money

Venice archive

Venice condemned by politics

Lagoon barriers rejected by the Green minister of the environment

Floodingarchive

Italian environment minister expected to reject Venice flood barriers

The report of the national commission on the project is due 21 October

Historian William St Clair's account of Parthenon marbles malpractice at British Museum revives lobby calling for their return

Greeks renew demands for return of sculptures following new allegations that they were irreparably damaged in the Thirties

Dürer’s “Virgin of the Sorrows”: almost too terrible to show in Munich

Three works by the German master went on show last month following an acid attack a decade ago. Two have been restored with a new ion-exchange technique used on paintings for the first time

Aulenti-Foscari partnership wins competition to rebuild Venice's Teatro La Fenice

At a projected $50.7 million, theirs was not the cheapest plan proposed, but the fastest and technically the best

Afghanistan’s historical sites devastated: An up-to-date survey

Looting, conflict and mining have caused terrible destruction

The Renaissance mystery of Sibenik’s dome

Sainsbury money is helping restore the fifteenth-century, Venetian-style masterpiece shelled in 1991

Venice archive

It’s official: it will be an old-style Fenice, but that’s all we know

The rubble began to be cleared from the burnt-out shell of the theatre in May, as rumours leaked from the judicial enquiry that the fire which destroyed it in January may have been arson. There is no proof, however, and investigations continue, while the mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, tries to speed up the rebuilding by putting the town hall technical department in charge of drawing up the preliminary plan

Unescoarchive

Petra is suffering from mass tourism

UNESCO conducted and produced a report on tourist threat to raise the alarm

Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel frescoes to be restored

The solution will involve low-tech improvements to the surroundings

The Uffizi bomb: The Galleries reopen

£13 million voted by the government has yet to arrive: most of the restoration has so far been paid for by public donation. Alberto Ronchey, Minister for Culture, has declared his aim to see thirty new rooms created within three years in former storage space, tripling the size of the Uffizi

Unescoarchive

Over 150 ancient and Medieval Egyptian sites hit by October earthquake

Unesco is coordinating a restoration programme for buildings from the Pyramid of Cheops to the Blue Mosque