Heritage

Liverpool should not be punished for its modern vision

The UK city has been stripped of its World Heritage status. Walter Aubrey Thomas, who designed some of its most famous buildings, would have objected, says his great-grandson

German floods damage archives, soaking historic documents in mud

A team from the Cologne City Archive has sent emergency aid to Stolberg

Nailed it: Kizhi Pogost church is finally restored on Russian island of remarkable wooden buildings

Newly reopened 18th-century Church of the Transfiguration, topped with 22 domes, is said to have been built without a single nail

Venice comment

Now is the time for Unesco to call Venice's authorities to order

For decades, short-termism and conflicting interests have prevented a sustainable plan for Venice from being developed or enacted

Italy bans cruise ships from the Venice lagoon from 1 August

Unesco and citizen action groups have campaigned for the move for years

Last Supper painting once adorned Shakespeare's classroom wall, new research suggests

Scholars believe the 15th-century decorative work was whitewashed in the Tudor era to obliterate the Roman Catholic imagery

Archaeologists find ruins of vast Medieval Nubian cathedral in Sudan

Polish team used remote sensing techniques to detect the building, the largest of its kind in the region, as well as a possible tomb of an archbishop

East German palaces and castles to get €400m for renovation

Move addresses "investment backlog" for upgrades to cultural sites in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia

Seven sites, including Venice, may be added to Unesco in Danger list

Of the 53 sites on the list—which will be reviewed at a committee meeting next month—only four are in the West

Visitors return to Venice—but at what cost?

The city took a big financial hit during the pandemic. But as things improve, locals are pushing for a more sustainable form of tourism

Unesco warns that Stonehenge will go on its danger list unless plans to build tunnel beneath it are modified

World Heritage Site status may also be removed from Liverpool's waterfront after excessive development

Venice comment

The damnation of Venice: locals are being systematically driven out by officials who are selling off sites for tourism

Venetians are leaving the city in thousands because rents are unaffordable, while more than 11% of social housing stands empty

'Geffrye must fall': Labour MP Diane Abbott leads protests demanding slaver statue be removed from London museum

Former UK shadow home secretary led protests at the Museum of the Home in Hoxton, which reopened to the public at the weekend

Oxford professors refuse to teach undergraduate students if Cecil Rhodes statue stays in place

Oriel College said it had no plans to “begin the legal process for relocation” of the monument

Chinanews

Uyghur tribunal reveals horrific abuses inside Xinjiang detention camps

Museums who partner with China need to know about the violence, says panel investigating alleged crimes against humanity

Italynews

Mussolini family feuds over reopened crypt of fascist Italian dictator

The controversial site has become a pilgrimage for far-right supporters

Amazon's plans to build massive warehouse near Roman aqueduct in south of France cause concern

Locals say the construction will be a "wart" on the way to Pont du Gard, a Unesco world heritage site, and will harm the surrounding environment

Crime news

Number of art thefts in Italy plummets—partly thanks to drones

New report by special police force finds increase in security and surveillance technology has dissuaded dealers in stolen art

Museum chiefs—and Mick Jagger—say Venice must be saved as cruise ships are set to return to lagoon city after 18-month break

Signatories of the open letter supporting ten point-plan to save La Serenissima also include the artist Anish Kapoor and The Art Newspaper's founding editor Anna Somers Cocks

Uyghurnews

China's destruction of Uyghur cultural property evidence of 'genocidal intent', UK MPs declare

Members of Parliament send warning to China ahead of motion to acknowledge human rights abuses against minorities in Xinjiang region

Heritagefeature

Special investigation: Declassified satellite images show erasure of Armenian churches

Covert destruction of Armenian-Christian heritage in Azerbaijan’s autonomous republic of Nakhichevan has been exposed in recently surfaced Cold War spy imagery taken by the US in the 1970s, published here for the first time

Egyptnews

First the Louvre's pyramid, now the actual Pyramids—JR to create show-stopping project in Egypt

Street artist hints he might make a photo collage at the 4,500-year-old Unesco World Heritage Site as part of exhibition organised by Art D’Egypte

Woolworth Building in San Antonio, a landmark in civil rights history, is spared from demolition

Former 1921 dime store, which peacefully desegregated its lunch counter in 1960, will house an Alamo museum

Campaigners fight to preserve monumental Soviet-era murals in Ukraine

Victor Arnautoff’s large-scale 1960s mosaics on public buildings in Mariupol are threatened by neglect and a “decommunisation” campaign

The fight to save Saudi Arabia’s Modern architecture

The reaction to the destruction of Al Rabooa mosque highlights changing attitudes to the conservation of Modernist and post-Modernist buildings in the kingdom

Off with her head! Infrared technology shows how a 15th-century French king used a paintbrush to replace one wife with another

Francis I of Brittany had his first wife painted over in a medieval prayer book before giving it to his new spouse, research at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum shows

Prominent Israeli rabbi: 'al-Aqsa mosque is the heart of the deadly hostilities—nobody really gets it'

Respect for religious sites and religions—not military might—is the only way forward, he says

Bell foundry that cast Big Ben can be turned into boutique hotel, UK government says

Decision has drawn wave of criticism from culture and heritage professionals, accusing government of ‘money-grabbing philistinism’

Lootnews

Looted Libyan sculpture seized at Heathrow Airport heads back home with help from the British Museum

The funerary piece was illicitly excavated from the ancient city of Cyrene which is under threat from property developers