A slideshow connected to a lecture on Art and Cultural Heritage Looting and Destruction available at Art History Teaching Resources (http://arthistoryteachingresources.org/), written by Rhonda Reymond.

1. Art and Cultural Heritage
Looting and Destruction

2. Themes:
•Destruction/iconoclasm and the erasure of culture
o due to ideology, neglect, or disregard for the object.
•Looting and the appropriation of objects
o for purposes of propaganda and economic gain
•Restitution, repatriation, reconstruction,
and artistic interventions

3. At issue: contestation of power over objects of cultural heritage
What objects have been held by various cultures and rulers
as being imbued with power?
Who has chosen to co-opt, usurp, or destroy particular works,
and for what reasons?
Who has obtained objects in the hopes of transferring a civilizing
aura
and promoting their cultural enrichment and status?
What objects have been subject to iconoclasm, and why?
What economic considerations might be present, and what are
the ramifications of the sale of culturally significant objects?
When has the destruction of those objects been a harbinger of or a
corollary to the destruction of an entire culture?

4. ISIS in the Mosul Museum

5. ISIS with Nergal Gate Lamassu

6. Lamassu, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.
Lamassu, Oriental Institute at the University
of Chicago.

7. Unidentified Hatra King (left) and Hatra King Uthal (right).

9. Nimrud: Feb. 26, 2015 Nimrud: March 7, 2015

10. Nimrud: April 1, 2015 Nimrud: April 17, 2015

11. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150414-why-islamic-state-
destroyed-assyrian-palace-nimrud-iraq-video-isis-isil-archaeology/
Nimrud

12. http://82nd-and-fifth.metmuseum.org/hyperreality
Relief from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
http://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/collections/ancient-near-eastern-
art/northwest-palace-nimrud

13. Warka Vase, c. 3200–3000 BCE, found at Uruk (modern Iraq).
After its return to the Iraq
Museum in June 2003

14. Buddha sculptures, sixth century CE, Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

15. Bamiyan Buddhas after March 2001

16. The Parthenon, 447–432 BCE, Athens, Greece.

17. Eugène Peytier, Mosque in the
Parthenon, 1815. (Mosque built
after 1688, demolished 1844)
The Parthenon, 447–432
BCE, Athens, Greece.

18. Before and after the earthquake in Nepal, 2015
Wilderness Battlefield National Military Park, Virginia

19. Icon of the Virgin Hodegetria,
last quarter of the twelfth
century CE.
Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy,
1350–1400 CE.

20. Apse Cross, after 740 CE, Church
of Saint Irene, Istanbul.
Folio 67r, Chludov Psalter, c. 850–
875 CE (with detail).

21. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The
Preaching of St. John the
Baptist, 1566.
Pieter Bruegel the Younger,
The Preaching of St. John the
Baptist, 1601–4.

22. Dirck van Delen, Iconoclasts in Church,
after 1566.
Images of the Beeldenstorm of 1566
Frans Hogenberg, Iconoclasts in
Church), after 1566.

23. Johannes Bosboom, St. John’s s’
Hertogenbosch, 1836.
St. John’s Choir Screen, Victoria &
Albert Museum, London.
Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Sketch of St.
Johns Choir Screen, 1632.

24. Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Sketch (left, 1632) and painting (right, 1646) of St. John at
s’Hertogenbosch.

25. Abraham Bloemaert, Adoration of the Shepherds, 1612.
(In situ at St. John at s’Hertogenbosch, right)

26. Pieter Aertsen, Adoration of the
Magi (central panel of triptych), c.
1560.
Hieronymous Bosch, Adoration of the
Magi triptych, c. 1510.

27. Master of Alkmaar, Seven Works of Mercy, c.1490–1510.

28. Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, 81 CE.

29. Spoils from the Temple in
Jerusalem (relief from the
Arch of Titus), 81 CE.
Digital Reconstruction
by Yeshiva University

30. Bronze Horses from St. Mark’s, Venice. Bronze Lion of Venice, 4th
–3rd
century BCE.

31. Raphael, Transfiguration, 1516–1520.
Raphael, Madonna della Sedia, 1513–4.

32. Raphael, Cartoon for School of Athens, 1510.

33. Corregio, Madonna with St.
Jerome, c. 1528.
Titian, The Crowning with
Thorns, 1542.

34. Above: Veronese, Wedding at Cana, 1553.
Right: depicted in situ inthe Louvre, Paris.

35. Sèvres, Napoléonic Procession of
Vatican Treasures to Musée
Napoléon (now the Louvre),
porcelain, c. 1810–3.

36. Colossal Head of Jupiter from Otricoli, Vatican,
Roman copy after Greek from 4th
–century BCE.
Detail: Napoléon Procession Vase

37. Detail: Napoléon Procession Vase
Apollo Belvedere, c. 120–40 CE
Roman copy of Greek bronze from
330–320 BCE.

38. Detail: Napoléon
Procession Vase
Eros, Roman copy after Greek bronze by
Lysippos from 4th
–century BCE.

39. Detail: Napoléon
Procession Vase
Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and
Polydoros of Rhodes, Laocoön
and his Sons, c. 27 BCE–68 CE.

40. Detail: Napoléon Procession Vase
Medici Venus, 1st
–century Roman
copy after Greek bronze.

41. Attributed to the Underworld Painter,
Apulian Volute Krater.
Napoleonic Procession of Vatican
Treasures to Musée Napoléon

42. Exekias, Achilles and Ajax
Playing Draughts, 550–525 BCE.
Napoleonic Procession of Vatican
Treasures to Musée Napoléon

43. Benjamin Zix, Salle de Laocoön,
Museé Napoléon, c. 1800.
Anonymous, Napoléon next to the
Apollo Belvedere.

44. Zix, Wedding Procession in the Louvre of Napoleon and Marie Louise of
Austria, 1810.

45. http://www.hulu.com/watch/587752
Empty frames in the Louvre
Nazi storage in Ellingen, Germany

46. House of German Art
Hitler speaking at the opening of the
House of German Art, 1937.

47. Exhibition in the House of German Art

48. Confiscated degenerate
art in storage
Pablo Picasso, Head of
a Woman, 1922.
Vincent Van Gogh,
Self-Portrait
dedicated to Paul
Gauguin, 1888.

49. Auction of confiscated “degenerate” art
Van Gogh, Self-Portrait.

50. Confiscated degenerate art

51. English news article reporting on Hitler’s speech at the opening of the
Degenerate Art Exhibition, 1937.

52. Cover of the Degenerate Art
(Entartete Kunst) exhibition
catalog, 1937.
Lines to see
exhibition

53. Visitor to the Degenerate Art Exhibition, 1937.
http://vp.nyt.com/video2014/03/12/26854_1_degenerate_wg_16x9_xl_bb_mm.mp4

54. Hitler touring the Degenerate Art Exhibition, 1937.
“Nehmen Sie Dada ernst!”
(Take Dada seriously),1937.

55. Hitler in the “Room of
Horrors,” 1937.
“Hitler Hates Modern Art,
Approves Nudes,” 1937.
(Forbidden art on left;
Approved art on right)

56. Collection of paintings by Hitler,
Army Center of Military History.
Hitler, Neuschwanstein Castle.
Hitler, The Courtyard of the Old
Residency in Munich, 1914.

57. Raphael, Portrait of a Young
Man, c. 1513–4, Czartoryski
Collection, Kraków, Poland,
Lost.

58. Monuments Women at the Jeu de Paume
(Left, Rose Valland; center, Edith Standen). Left, Standen; right, Valland.

59. Hitler giving approved art (looted) as gifts to his officers.

60. Small sample of art found in Altaussee mine by Monuments, Fine Arts &
Archives (MFAA).

61. MFAA agents recover Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine.

62. U.S. Army Chaplain (Rabbi) with looted Torah Scrolls.

63. Monuments Man James Rorimer (top) recovering art
in Neuschwanstein Castle with MFAA unit.

64. MFAA men with Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna in
Altaussee mine.

65. http://www.hulu.com/watch/587752
Recovered Ghent Altarpiece in Altaussee mine.

66. “We wish to state that from our own knowledge, no historical grievance
will rankle so long, or be the cause of so much justified bitterness, as
the removal, for any reason, of a part of the heritage of any nation...”
Wiesbaden Manifesto

67. Gustave Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, (Woman in Gold), 1907.

68. Center, Nazi art dealer
Hildebrandt Gurlitt.
Henri Matisse, Seated
Woman, found in the home
of Hildebrandt Gurlitt’s son,
Cornelius Gurlitt.

69. Franz Marc, Horses in Landscape and Christoph Hans, Couple, found in Gurlitt’s home.
(Two of 1,500 works found in Gurlitt’s home)
http://www.lostart.de/Webs/EN/Datenbank/KunstfundMuenchen.html

70. Three of the thirty vigango from the Denver Museum.

71. Archibald Archer, Elgin Marbles in the Temporary Elgin Room, British Museum, 1819.

72. Parthenon Marbles, c. 447–438 BCE, British Museum.

73. Parthenon Marbles, c. 447–438 BCE, Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece.

74. Warsaw Castle, Warsaw, Poland 1598–1619.
Demolished September, 1944.

75. Warsaw Castle, Warsaw, Poland 1598–1619.
Demolished September, 1944.

76. CyArk was founded in 2003 to ensure heritage sites are available to future
generations — while making them uniquely accessible today — with the mission of
using new technologies to create a free, 3D online library of the world's cultural
heritage sites before they are lost to natural disasters, destroyed by human
aggression, or ravaged by the passage of time.
Siege of Lachish–Assyrian, digital 3-D copy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcLwoa19kLw#t=40
http://projectmosul.org
Project Mosul, Assyrian Lion,
digital reconstruction.

77. Tammam Azzam, Goya, from the series The Syrian Museum, 2013, C-print.

78. Tammam Azzam,
Freedom Graffiti,
2013, Lightbox.

79. Tammam Azzam, Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night (left) and Matisse (right)
from the series Syrian Museum, 2013, C-print.

80. Morehshin Allahyari, ISIS: Material Speculation [Assyrian Lamassu], 2015,
digital 3D print.

81. Morehshin Allahyari, ISIS: Material Speculation [Hatrene Kings], 2015,
digital 3D print.

82. Morehshin Allahyari, ISIS: Material Speculation [Assyrian Lamassu], 2015,
digital 3D print.

83. “There is no choice between protecting human lives and safeguarding the
dignity of a people through its culture.
Both must be protected, as the one and same thing — there is no
culture
without people and no society without culture.”
Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO (2013)