Heritage

More than 500 cultural objects returned to Ecuador

Ancient artefacts and colonial-era art repatriated from Argentina and Spain

Yemen battles to save ancient heritage from destruction

Museum in Taiz latest casualty of conflict in which more than 40 sites caught in the crossfire of Saudi-led bombing campaign and fundamentalist attacks

Altamira caves raffle plan is ‘nonsense’, says Spain’s culture secretary

Local tourist minister has proposed auctioning tickets to the heritage site to help raise funds

Artnews

Painting by Rembrandt’s favourite pupil given UK export bar

Government hopes a public collection can match £5.2m asking price for Ferdinand Bol’s Portrait of a Boy

Lords put pressure on UK government to sign Hague Convention this year

Move could allow cultural heritage experts to set up Blue Shield headquarters in London

French museum reunites head with decapitated Khmer statue

The Musée Guimet has returned the ancient sculpture to Cambodia as part of a five-year loan agreement

Isil extremists destroy Iraq’s oldest Christian monastery

The destruction, which went unreported for 16 months, raises fears that other sites have been attacked

Artnews

National Trust to restore fire-devastated Clandon Park

Original owners say shell should be demolished after 95% of the English Palladian mansion’s interior was destroyed

Suspected arson at Fontainebleau church

Historic furnishings damaged and around a dozen objects missing or destroyed

Artnews

France builds grand alliance to protect cultural heritage

Louvre director’s plan calls for co-ordinated response to destruction in Syria and Iraq

Celebrated director of World Monuments Fund retires

Bonnie Burnham made the organisation, which turns 50 this year, into a global powerhouse

We’ll store your artefacts, US tells Syrian museums

New framework stresses return principle but some fear that traffickers in illicit objects could abuse it

Italy’s culture workers threaten national protest

While government moves to limit right to strike by reclassifying museums as “essential public services” on a par with schools and hospitals

First hearings held in the Hague over alleged cultural heritage war crimes

Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi appeared at the International Criminal Court this week in connection to 2012 attacks on Timbuktu

Mecca’s collapsing crane was part of a criticised building boom

Saudi Artist Ahmed Mater has captured the rampant redevelopment around the Islamic holy place

Satellite image confirms Isil's destruction of Palmyra's Temple of Bel

Second building reduced to rubble by extremists controlling ancient site in Syria

Putin intervenes in Crimean row

Priest resigns after outrage over appointment to run World Heritage Site

Isil destroys ancient temple in Palmyra

Bombing, reported yesterday, may have happened a month ago

Isil beheads archaeologist in Palmyra

Syria's antiquities ministry condemns killing as "cowardly and criminal act of appalling brutality"

Queen Nefertiti’s burial chamber could lie behind King Tutankhamun’s tomb

British archaeologist discovers evidence of hidden passages in pharaoh’s chamber

Culture fights back in Tunisia

Sufi-inspired exhibition aims to rescue Islam from the extremists

Isil holds heritage to ransom to fund fighters, US expert warns

Terrorist group functions as a modern racketeering operation through sale of plundered cultural objects

Grand Tour puts countryside on contemporary art map

Regional museums and stately homes in heart of England aim to attract more foreign visitors by treating visitors like modern m'lords

Lottery fund is a success, but grants are much harder to get

Report praises most of the first 100 projects to be completed, but the days of enormous largesse are gone

Russborough House pulls Old Masters from Christie’s auction

Opposition from heritage groups changes the embattled foundation’s plans