Issa Touma vows to return to Aleppo amid the fighting

Team will also provide training for local restorers

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

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

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

Historic furnishings damaged and around a dozen objects missing or destroyed

Suspected terrorist explosion kills ten in historic Sultanahmet

Opening of Stephane Custot’s gallery in the emirate has been delayed

Project on free speech launches on the first anniversary of terrorist attacks at Paris satirical magazine

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

<p> Artefacts have been moved off-site after 50 centimetres of water swamps the basement museum </p>

Five men have been sentenced under Law52, the anti-drugs legislation enforced by the country’s former president

Pro-Isil fighters temporarily occupied Sabratha

Refugee Response Foundation, founded by artist duo The Connor Brothers, is also due to help with legal and living costs

Art world divided over best response in weekend after 13 November terrorist atrocities

Also Known as Africa postponed to 2016 amid heightened security and a bleak economic outlook

Exhibition co-organised by Germano Celant signals Iran’s soft power offensive

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

Iraqi archaeologists to be trained in reconstruction of heritage sites under scheme funded by £3m government grant

Syrian antiquities head confirms destruction of ancient Roman archway

Complexity of Syrian war and rise of Isil underpin muted response to ongoing destruction of ancient site

French naval officer Louis Vignes took images of Beirut, Lebanon and Syria in 1864

Unique insight into the destruction at Palmyra from the last US archaeologist to leave the site

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

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

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

Amid destruction and murder, it is difficult to know the extent of the terrorist group’s antiquities trafficking