Disasters & destruction
Somerset House fire: Courtauld Gallery reopens with collection undamaged
Extent of damage to building is unclear and being investigated
Ukrainian worker manages a wrecked museum in exile
Mariupol museum’s Oleksandr Hore, trapped in Odesa, is documenting losses and monitoring looting
Conservation experts deploying to Lahaina, Hawaii, to support recovery from 2023 wildfires
Thanks to a grant of almost $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, two experts will travel to Maui to assist affected museums and historic sites
Fire guts historic Toronto church, destroying its Group of Seven murals
A restoration campaign for St Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto is already underway, but its historic art is lost forever
Turkey counts cost of earthquake repairs
A year after tremors devastated the south of the country, painstaking work begins to restore thousands of damaged monuments
Devastating fire destroys more than 4,000 paintings in national collection of Abkhazia
Fire marks tragic loss for cultural heritage in the region, which broke away from Georgia three decades ago
Gaza City archives among heritage sites destroyed in Israel-Hamas war
Brief truce allowed International Council on Monuments and Sites and Palestinian antiquities ministry to investigate damage on the ground
The Year in Review 2023: the biggest stories and the best shows
From the British Museum thefts to the consequences in art and heritage of the Israel-Hamas war
The ancient villages and historic monuments destroyed in western Afghanistan earthquakes
Last month's deadly quakes affected key historic monuments in Herat and beyond
Unesco adds sites in Kyiv and Lviv to list of world heritage in danger
Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the historic centre of Lviv join Odesa on Unesco’s endangered list
Heritage destruction brings Putin one step closer to prosecution, according to landmark report
Blue Shield workers have been able to access and gather evidence in destroyed cultural buildings and heritage sites in Ukraine. What have they found?
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair launches Moroccan earthquake relief project
Appeal brings artists and institutions together to raise funds to support survivors and long-term reconstruction
Ancient Yazidi heritage still under threat after Isis genocide
Around 200,000 Yazidis remain displaced following attacks, and efforts to restore shrines and other buildings have stalled due to ongoing security concerns and a lack of funding
‘We’re not ready’: the race to protect Istanbul’s heritage from another earthquake
Conservators are raising the alarm in the ancient Turkish city as seismologists warn that an earthquake is all but inevitable within the next two decades
Italy announces museum ticket price hike as part of €2bn flood aid package
Admission will be raised by €1 to support relief efforts in the affected Emilia-Romagna region
Museums close and turn into shelters amid deadly floods in northern Italy
At least 13 people have died and thousands have been evacuated as the Emilia-Romagna region battles its worst floods in 100 years
Full scale of damage to Turkish and Syrian heritage emerges after devastating earthquakes
Many archaeological landmarks and religious sites in the region have been heavily damaged or destroyed
Turkey-Syria earthquake: the race to save damaged heritage sites
Plus, Alice Neel's largest UK show and a dazzling turn-of-the-century blanket
Here's how you can help the post-earthquake aid effort in Turkey and Syria through art
Art organisations and artists are rallying to provide money for disaster relief in the region
Special investigation: Serious concerns over fate of Ukraine’s museum works taken by Russians
The Art Newspaper probes the complex issues arising from the removal of the Kherson Museum’s collection, sent to Crimea for “safekeeping”
‘Cultural erasure’ in the Caucasus: new satellite imagery shows ongoing destruction of Armenian heritage sites
Images show disappearance of churches and cemeteries in the Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhchivan regions at the centre of the largely ignored conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan
Western arrogance on parade in new book about culture and conflict
Different methods of protecting heritage during times of war are explored with mixed success in this challenging read
'We must accelerate efforts to protect Ukraine’s culture,' says British Council chief
Culture will be central to the country's recovery—enabling people to process trauma, share a common identity and articulate shared experiences
Kyiv cultural sites reportedly damaged in Russian bombardment
Ukrainian culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says buildings have been damaged including the Khanenko Art Museum and the Kyiv Art Gallery
Wildfire on Easter Island causes 'irreparable' damage to ancient moai head statues
The Unesco World Heritage Site is closed while conservators assess the damage to the almost 1,000 ancient statues, while the island's mayor claims the fire was started deliberately
In aftermath of Hurricane Ian's destruction, West Florida art institutions begin to pick up the pieces
While some museums and art spaces escaped largely unscathed—thanks to a mix of thorough preparation and meteorological luck—others in the most devastated areas remain unreachable
Pakistan’s heritage has suffered the brutal effects of record monsoon rains—what happens now?
As Unesco pledges $350,000 to safeguard sites, questions are raised about the country’s long-term commitment to restoring and protecting key locations in the face of the climate crisis
Ukrainian stone statues—likened to Easter Island's Moai—destroyed during Russian invasion
Dating from the ninth to the 13th century, the stelae were once considered sacred
Metropolitan Museum to exhibit masterpieces from Puerto Rican museum struck by earthquake
The pieces include paintings by Frederic Leighton, John Everett Millais and Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Icom condemns Russia's 'deliberate destruction' of Ukrainian heritage and plans stricter code of ethics
The International Council of Museums says revised protocol will allow it to more readily “address conflicts”—and could lead to the expulsion of Russia from the organisation