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The looting and destruction of cultural heritage has been a feature of armed conflict for almost as long we have records of conflict. For thousands of years it was perceived as the right of the victor to take an enemy’s property and destroy what could not be taken. Assyrian reliefs show the sack of temples and the removal of the gods; the colosseum in Rome was built with spoils taken from the sack of Jerusalem; centrepieces of many European national museum collections, includ

When Daesh began blowing up ruins at the ancient city of Palmyra, Western news outlets couldn’t get enough of it. Pictures featuring heaps of rubble scattered amid lonely columns were splashed across the Internet, anchored by headlines intoning a veritable call to arms: “Culture Under Threat!” That call was answered by national leaders, academics, and international organizations, which made fervent appeals for the protection of these threatened cultural landmarks. One kind of