Disasters & destruction

Ukraine demolishes Kyiv monument symbolising friendship with Russia

The titanium People’s Friendship Arch above the statue will remain but be renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People

Reports say Putin is deliberately targeting Ukrainian heritage—but is that true?

Amid Russia’s savagery we must maintain a clear ethical stance when intervening to protect culture

Ukrainian cultural site where Tchaikovsky once composed music damaged by Russian forces

Town of Trostianets has pushed out the Russian army but has suffered widespread destruction

Italynews

After years of emergencies, Italy launches 'unprecedented' plan to protect churches against earthquake damage

Culture ministry earmarks EU pandemic recovery funds to mitigate the impact of future disasters on religious buildings around the country

Culture in the crossfire: Ukraine's key monuments and museums at risk of destruction in the war

Museum staff, heritage custodians and volunteers are racing against time to safeguard the country's cultural treasures, many of which, ironically, are connected to Russia

Museum building heavily damaged in Ukraine's battle-ravaged city of Chernihiv

Director has been posting emotional updates on Facebook as Russian forces shell area

'The damage is incomprehensible': toll of Australia floods on cultural precinct of Lismore

Floodwaters rose to second-floor ceiling of Lismore Regional Gallery, at the “epicentre” of the disaster for the New South Wales town

'I'll do anything I can to save them all': an Afghan contemporary artist on life after narrowly escaping the Taliban

In our series "Dispatches from Afghanistan", we speak to artists about their experiences since the rise of the Taliban. Here, Jahan Ara Rafi calls on the international community to help rescue those still stuck in the country

Haitian artists show in Miami but worry about home

As order collapses, the country's residents lack food, water and power—but cultural life survives amid the chaos

'I've started wearing a burka and hidden all my instruments': an Afghan musician on life under the Taliban

In our series "Dispatches from Afghanistan", we speak to artists about their experiences since the rise of the Taliban. Here, Sima shares how fearing for her life is making her physically ill

'Pessimism is a luxury. For people living in Afghanistan, that is never an option': an Afghan art organisation on life under the Taliban

In our series "Dispatches from Afghanistan", we speak to artists and cultural workers about their experiences since the rise of the Taliban

Castello di Rivoli helps bring Afghan artist and curator to Italy

Abdul Wasi Rahraw Omarzad set up a school for women artists and Afghanistan’s only art journal

How to help Afghan artists and cultural workers now at risk under the Taliban

As part of our ongoing series "Dispatches from Afghanistan", we have compiled a list of organisations supporting those vulnerable both inside and outside of the country

Filmsreview

Disasters sweep across the screen in Nature by Artavazd Peleshian

The first new film in 30 years by the veteran Armenian director, commissioned by the Fondation Cartier, had its premiere at the NY Film Festival this week

An Afghan cultural worker’s life under the Taliban: 'There is nothing left for us here and we can’t go anywhere else'

In a new series "Dispatches from Afghanistan", we speak to artists about their experiences since the rise of the Taliban. Here, Mansoor laments the world’s silence over Afghanistan's fate

Flash flooding overwhelms Ljubljana’s cultural institutions

In the worst flood in Slovenia in nearly two centuries, the capital's most important theatre and Modern art museum have been damaged

An Afghan artist's life under the Taliban: burning art, deleting social media accounts and living in hiding

In a new series "Dispatches from Afghanistan", we speak to artists about their experiences since the rise of the Taliban. Here, contemporary artist and curator Mina recounts the horrors of her failed escape attempt

Unesco report reveals extent of Russian threat to Crimean heritage

Since the annexation in 2014, Russia has been persecuting the Tatar population and appropriating monuments

Ancient Chinese sites hit by flash floods this summer

Deadly rains in central Henan province threatened key Unesco World Heritage sites and hundreds of national relics. Experts warn the disaster may be a taste of future trouble

Podcastspodcast

Afghanistan: the threat of the Taliban to artists and heritage

Plus, artist Bill Fontana records Notre Dame's bells

Sponsored byChristie's

Louis Armstrong’s ‘second home’ in New Orleans destroyed by Hurricane Ida

The Karnofsky Store, a Jewish family’s former tailor shop where the young jazz legend found early encouragement for his musical talent, has been reduced to rubble

Protocols are already available to help save Afghanistan’s cultural heritage

In 2015, the Association of Art Museum Directors established a structure under which museums can act to protect cultural property in immanent peril

Canadanews

‘What they could have become’: artist Johnny Bandura creates mural imagining the lost futures of 215 Kamloops children

The Qayqayt First Nation artist has created vivid portraits of the residential school victims whose lives were cut short

Unesco calls for Afghanistan’s heritage to be protected—but how will it seek enforcement?

UK government agrees that new regime must "safeguard the full diversity of Afghan culture"

'We have collected the parts': owners of Kusama's typhoon-battered pumpkin in Japan plan to restore it

Artist's huge sculpture at Benesse Art Site Naoshima was "severely damaged" when it was washed out to sea during stormy weather earlier this week

Acropolis forced to close amid unprecedented heatwave and wildfires in Greece

The birthplace of the Olympic Games is one of the many ancient sites at risk as record temperatures scorch country

A year on from the devastating Beirut blast, the city’s national museum slowly reopens

Louvre specialists worked with Lebanese counterparts to repair the damaged building

Warehouse of the Cinemateca Brasileira is struck by fire

Lawsuit was filed against the Brazilian government earlier this month citing the imminent risk of a blaze

British Museum to restore glass artefacts shattered in Beirut explosion

Eight vessels from the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut will undergo conservation thanks to €25,000 grant from Tefaf fund