Erasing history: Iconic photos of eight types of iconoclasm

The Italian founder of Futurism declared in a manifesto, around a century ago, the objectives of his ultra-modernistic movement. One of them was:

We wish to destroy museums, libraries, academies of any sort.¹F. T. Marinetti: Critical Writings, trans. Doug Thompson, ed. Günter Berghaus (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), 14.

His destructive intent was neither metaphorical, nor unique. Iconoclasm had always existed. It existed as soon as humans were capable of creating objects to stand as symbols, objects of shared meaning. One could find the iconoclastic urge in the broken noses on the statues of Egyptian pharaohs or the obliterated Assyrian heritage in modern war zones of Iraq and Syria. Below is a list of the various types of iconoclasm including the Futurist one (Refer to number 7 on the list).

Note that no list could be scientific or clear-cut. For example, destruction of minorities’ heritage (number 4 below) often happens as part of wider war-time destruction (number 2). Also, note that I have eliminated from the list accidental destruction (the national museum of Brazil consumed by fire), pathological attacks (the crazed Hungarian dealing hammer blows to Michelangelo’s Pieta) and mob vandalism during chaotic periods (the looting of the Iraqi national museum following the American invasion).

1. Religiously-motivated iconoclasm:

This type of iconoclasm is what gave us the very term, which means “smashing of icons.” It goes back to the Byzantine iconoclasts who violently opposed the veneration of Christian icons in the 8th century with support from Byzantine Emperor Leo III. Such iconoclasts consider the very existence of certain objects an offense to their god or an aggression on their “sacred” beliefs.

Damaged relief statues inside the Cathedral of Saint Martin, in Utrecht of the Netherlands. In 1566, a historic Iconoclastic Outbreak spread in several European countries as a result of the Protestant Reformation. In the photo above, the more extreme Protestants, the Calvinists, damaged or beheaded statues of Catholic churches considered idolatrous in the house of God. To the Protestants, they were also symbols of the lavishness and corruption of the Catholic Church.

Despite calls from the international community, the Islamist government of Taliban proceeded to dynamite 6th-century Buddhist statues in March 2001.

2. Wartime iconoclasm:

Technological progress during the 20th century allowed the obliteration of entire historical neighborhoods in a matter of minutes. The aggressive forces claims that under the fog of war destroying cultural property is unavoidable. The two World Wars inflicted incalculable damage on cultural heritage of most nations involved. The bombardment of the Reims Cathedral, for example, during WWI caused international fury as the French accused the Germans of deliberately targeting it.

The Nazi army deliberately bombed historical landmarks and neighborhoods in Warsaw Old Town during WWII.

The British attacks of 1860 during the Opium Wars resulted in the destruction of Old Summer Palace of China, described as “Versailles of the East.” The first photo is a historical drawing of the site before it was destroyed.

3. Iconoclasm as “riotous vengeance”:

The target is often a former tyrannical regime. One well-known example is the destruction of communist monuments in Eastern Europe in and after 1989. Also, during the fervor of the French Revolution, symbols the ancient régime were demolished including equestrian statues and royal tombs.

A toppled statue of Vladimir Lenin, the Soviet leader, in Bucharest on March 5, 1990, signaling the end of the Communist era. Three months earlier, in December 1989, a Romanian Revolution overthrew the Communist Party after ruling for 42 years.

The toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad marked the symbolic end of his reign. It took place briefly after the Invasion of Iraq in 2003.

4. Iconoclasm as a form of persecution (cultural genocide):

This is the type of iconoclasm where the cultural property of an ethnic or religious group is “systematically” destroyed. The Chinese government, for example, targeted the heritage of Tibetans. Another example is the Nazi destruction of centuries-old synagogues along with other Jewish property in Germany, France, Latvia and Lithuania.

A synagogue burning on Kristallnacht in Siegen, Germany. Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) was a pogrom against Jews by Nazi paramilitary forces and civilians, on the night of November 9-10, 1938. Jewish institutions, including schools and hospitals, were attacked throughout Germany and Austria. More than 90 were killed and 267 synagogues were looted and destroyed.

Al-Askari Mosque of Baghdad was built in the 10th century and is considered one of the most sacred Shi’ite Muslim sites. It was bombed in 2006 by militant Islamists who belong to a Sunni faction.

5. Iconoclasm as “an artistic expression”:

It’s rooted in the early 20th-century art movements like Dada, though they never actually destroyed artworks. Dada artists displayed “mock vandalism,” e.g. Marcel Duchamp’s famous reproduction of the Mona Lisa with a moustache and a small beard. However, there are cases where real art was destroyed. The most recent one is Banksy’s self-destructing painting.

The anonymous British artist, Banksy, built a shredder into the frame of one of his most famous works, with a remote-control mechanism. In a 2018 auction, after it was sold for $1.4 million, the auction goers watched the self-shredding in horror. The artist posted a video of the incident on Instagram with a quote from Picasso: The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.

Starting from the 1960s, “happenings” (performance art) became popular on the art scene. In this 1975 photo, the French-American artist, Arman, is destroying his own artworks, which he describes as worthless, in a “happening” titled Conscious Vandalism.

6. Iconoclasm as “an act of protest”:

The suffragettes were the first in the last century to use iconoclasm for political purposes, i.e. protesting perceived injustice. But one could still find a few similar incidents in the 19th century: the demolition of the Vendôme Column as an act of open defiance to the French government by the revolutionary communists and anarchists, known as Communards, who ruled over Paris for a few months in 1871. The fact that vandals attack objects, rather than physically harm humans, does not mean they are much less controversial. In fact, the term “cultural terrorism” has been used to label such attacks and is slowly gaining traction in the media.

The militant suffragette Mary Richardson slashed the Rokeby Venus painting with a small axe in 1914 as an act of protest. The iconic painting of the goddess Venus was completed by Diego Velázquez in the late 1640s. The feminist activist was disgusted by “the way men visitors gaped at [the female nude] all day long.” On the left, the activist is getting arrested following her act.

The 16th-century Fountain of Justice in the Swiss city of Bern was destroyed in 1986. It was considered among the most important historical fountains in Switzerland. The vandals who toppled it belonged to a radical group advocating the separation of Jura from the Berne region in Switzerland.

7. Iconoclasm as a state-sponsored “campaign of modernization”:

This type of iconoclasm is unique since it is the case where a society demolishes its own heritage. The initiative is always part of a government’s vision to modernize, i.e. “from above.” It is led by an authoritarian ruler and takes place during peacetime. The justification is the elimination of old ideas or superstitions. The Italian Futurists, led by Filippo Marinetti, advocated such initiatives. Russian and Chinese Communists actually demolished much of their own heritage. (Read full analysis here.)

Photo: The best-known victim of Soviet iconoclasm was Cathedral of Christ the Savior, demolished in 1931. It had been the largest church in the Christian Orthodox world, built in 1883. Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, declared in 1924 that the cathedral should be demolished and in its place an ultra-modern Palace of the Soviets would rise up. The 415-meter building would be crowned with a gigantic stainless steel statue of Lenin with his arm up in the air. Lenin’s statue was to be almost twice as large as the Statue of Liberty. The public was fascinated with the dazzling designs. Thus, on orders of Stalin, the Soviets blew up the cathedral in 1931. Construction started slowly due to lack of funds during the 1930s. Then the Second World War, in 1941, derailed the project and exhausted state resources. The project continued to be doomed into the 1950s, and under Nikita Khrushchev, the site was transformed into the largest swimming pool in USSR! By the year 2000, the cathedral was rebuilt.

During Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976), Red Guards destroyed ancient artifacts of Chinese heritage. They wanted to eliminate beliefs such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.

8. Iconoclasm for economic development:

Iconoclasm for industrialization or economic development is sometimes associated with the previous kind, of state-sponsored campaigns to “clean up” old heritage. But in other cases, there was a genuine need to destroy certain national treasures as a last resort to better the lives of the living, as in the case of Egypt below.

Photo: Cranes carefully lift the face of a statue from the Abu Simbel Temples in Egypt. For thousands of years, the Egyptian farmers would depend on the Nile’s annual flooding to irrigate their lands, which meant that agriculture was not possible all year round. During the 1950s, the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, saw the construction of a dam as a solution to the nation’s agriculture and electricity shortage. It would also bring about rapid industrialization and self-sufficiency—a great buzzword at the time. Solutions like nuclear power were not available. But it became clear that the dam would back up the Nile river and many priceless ancient temples would be drowned including the temples of Abu Simbel and Philae Island. Egypt appealed for help. An international committee confirmed Egypt’s need to build the dam. Over a period of five years, twenty-six countries participated in the massive undertaking of moving the ancient temples. Construction started in 1960. The project was considered a success for the international community, though it was impossible to save all ancient monuments. Also sadly tens of thousands of Nubians were displaced.

Above is a photo of Mussolini, in 1932, visiting the site of the demolition and construction of what today is Via dei Fori Imperiali (Road of the Imperial Forums). His commands were to start “gutting” old Rome to build a grand boulevard. That led to the demolition of ancient Imperial Forums of Julius Caesar, August, Vespasian and Trajan. Also medieval churches and ancient sections of Rome were destroyed, and thousands of residents were relocated. The project was finished within months to make room for a great parade celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Fascist takeover of power in 1922.

Photo: Skyscraper luxury hotels in Mecca dwarf the kaaba (bottom center), the holiest site of Islam.
By some estimates, 98% of the Saudi Kingdom’s Islamic and historical sites, since 1985, has been destroyed for having been in the path of mega-projects. A Hilton Hotel and a Burger King is now on the former site of the house of the first caliph (religious leader) in Islam, Abu Bakr. The house of the Prophet Muhammad’s first wife, Khadijah, is now a block of 1,400 public toilets. The home where the prophet was born, the House of Mawalid, was replaced by a huge royal palace. It should be noted that destroying what could become “idolatrous” shrines had always been sanctioned by the dominant Wahabi supporters in Saudi Arabia since its foundation. Hence, the ultraconservatives never voiced their opposition to the destruction of historical monuments. However, over the last three decades, the destruction of Saudi “holy sites” was less driven by religious ideology than a major drive for modernization.

Is it ever justified for a people to destroy their own cultural heritage?

No, in most cases. Once cultural heritage is destroyed, it is lost forever. Continue reading…

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