Disasters & destruction

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

Featuresarchive

Bogdan Bogdanovic speaks out: War in Yugoslavia, a house attacked by demons

The architect, whose entire career has been devoted to the tragic commemoration of war victims, is one of the very few Serbians brave enough to speak out against the current Serbian aggression. Here he describes the war fever that has gripped his country and lays the blame on the intellectuals

Photographic exhibition documents the cost of the Croatian conflict

A harrowing look into the damage wreaked during the last seven months

Tug-of-war over baroque church of San Luca in Genoa as baroque gem falls into ruin

The Spinola family has created a Foundation and is looking for sponsors; the State would like to get possession of the sadly-neglected building

Damage inflicted on cultural monuments in the Yugoslav conflict

Report of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments, Croatian Ministry of Education and Culture, with information collected by 5 October 1991

Newsarchive

War in Croatia: An open letter in protest of the devastation in Yugoslavia

Signatories include The Art Newspaper's own Anna Somers Cocks

The full text of the Hague convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict (1954)

Neither the U.S.A. nor G.B. have ratified it, despite having insisted, with Turkey, on the inclusion of an exemption clause for military necessity

The law of war: The Hague Convention as military necessity or military convenience?

The 1954 convention is the product of nearly a century’s thought about cultural property in which it is implicit that it is the heritage of all mankind

Looted artarchive

How forces invading Iraq neglected to make provisions for heritage sites

Unlike in World War II, no commission exists to advise the military