What is the most valuable, or historically significant item ever to be purposefully destroyed?

Interesting question, which I thought you might say was sparked by the new movie Monuments Men, but you didn’t mention it in your details. If you haven’t heard of it, it looks quite good.

I hope that someone will have good information to share on this post.

The first thing that comes to mind is the Library of Alexandria

Update: @Judi dang, we lose. Reading the Wikipedia entry I linked, it seems the burning was an accident.

I change my answer to the Chinese Cultural Revolution which is not one item, but included a whole lot of items.

Probably the Library at Alexandrea.
@jaykay, jinx.

The 1500 year old Buddhas of Bamiyan that were blown up by the Taliban first come to my mind.
The Taliban’s actions in 2001 prove their intolerance to other cultures and beliefs.

The two Buddhists sculptures the Taliban blew up. Yeah @LuckyGuy. It blew my mind that someone would be so threatened by something like that.

From all I understand it does not seem that the library of Alexandria was deliberated destroyed, so I’m not sure it really counts under the premise of the question.

I would agree with @jaytkay – a lot of Chinese culture was destroyed by the Revolution, although many smaller treasures were able to be transported to Taiwan. The destruction continues – they have “simplified” the written language, which takes a lot of historical detail out of the Chinese characters. My wife, who learned only the Traditional version, has trouble reading the Simplified version. Sounds Orwellian (double plus ungood).

@LuckyGuy beat me on my original answer. So I’d say the destruction of some beautiful Jewish cemeteries in the beginning of the holocaust. They were destroyed and the tombstones were used to page roads.

@jaytkay Remember, people write Wikipedia and sometimes they miss the mark – it’s one new theory.

The theory of how the Library of Alexandria was burned and that which was taught at major universities including NYU and Columbia (where I can attest firsthand) is that an early Christian revolt took it down because it was an idolatrous place and taught classical ideas that were antithetical to the bible. I suspect the new theory is politically driven – the answer is out of style.

How about the Parthenon.

“In 1687, the Ottoman Turks were using the Parthenon in Athens, as a gunpowder magazine. The Venetians laid siege to the city, and hit the Parthenon with artillery fire, exploding the gunpowder and instantly gutting the ancient monument and surrounding buildings.

What we see today is are remnants of the original structures, almost completely blown to bits.”

@MadMadMax I was thinking about that and other great Greek and Roman places. There were many that were broken up and used as housing materials for huts in the Dark Ages.

http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=10276

Prometheus, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine Tree
Prometheus was apparently accidentally cut down in 1964 by a graduate student and United States Forest Service personnel for research purposes. The tree at the time it was cut down was at least 4,862 years old.

http://www.arizona.edu/features/keepers-prometheus-worlds-oldest-tree

The amber room.

^^The Amber Room of Peter the Great

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369271/60-year-hunt-Russian-Czars-missing-Amber-Room-discovery-Germany.html

Dresden, Germany at the end of WWII.

Stedman’s balls. One of The Dead Sea Scrolls, used to make one awesome pot of tea.

Personally, from a Buddhist standpoint, I consider the Bamiyan Buddhas to be no great loss (impermanence and all that). I’m much more bothered by the dispossession of the people who lived in and around those caves by the groups who want to rebuild the statues (most likely to turn into a tourist destination).

The Royal castle of Warsaw

This is one of the most important historical buildings in all of Poland.

It was the home of the Polish Monarchy and has a great deal of cultural and artistic value. It was damaged during the German siege of Warsaw and then demolished by the Germans before they withdrew from the city in 1945 along with much of the rest of the city.

Since then the Poles have put in painstaking efforts to rebuild the castle which can now be seen in it’s fully reconstructed form.

http://vimeo.com/35976896

The 13th century Castle of Coucy, near Laon, Aisne, France. (This castle, a famous historic relic, but useless in modern warfare, was blown up by the Germans in March, 1917, during their retreat.) -Thanks to “The New Century Dictionary,” 1944 edition.

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Leda and the Swan” The Lost Painting

The original painting survived until at least 1625, but was deliberately destroyed some time after.

http://www.leonardo-tly.com/tag/leda-and-the-swan/

Michelangelo also had a painting of Leda and the Swan that is believed to have been deliberately destroyed.

While they were both documented and copied by accomplished artists and we know exactly what they looked like, the originals themselves no longer exist.

Stolen Masterpieces including a Vermeer and Rembrandts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrPqiGIJYYs#t=20

The most notorious theft of art work in the United States occurred on March 18, 1990 when two thieves posing as Boston Policemen entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

After handcuffing and duct taping the only active security guards, the thieves proceeded to remove some of the museum’s most valuable pieces (13 stolen items in all) including a Vermeer, three Rembrandts, a Manet, drawings by Degas, and two small bronze objects.

The theft is the largest value art heist in American history. Some sources estimate that the Vermeer alone could be worth over $200,000,000 and that the entire collection could be valued at over $500,000,000.

My answer to the OP’s question would be the destroyed works of William Blake. Upon Blake’s death his estate was, of course, inherited by his wife Catherine. Catherine, unable to support herself o her own, moved into the house of Blake’s friend Frederick Tatham, for whom she worked as a housekeeper. On her death a few years later Blake’s works were left to Tatham, who burned many which he considered too blasphemous or politically radical (which makes me wonder why he ever came to be a member of the Shoreham Ancients, a Blake “fan club” of sorts, if he was that bothered by Blake’s work). I’m not sure if there were copies made of some of these destroyed works.

Warsaw. Prior to WWII, Warsaw had been a beautiful city, packed with interesting architecture and looking similar to Paris. The Germans used dynamite, flamethrowers, and bulldozers to destroy 85% of the city.

I almost forgot! The Bonfire of the Vanities I have often wondered about all the great works of art destroyed in the fires. I am a big fan of many of the artists of that time period, but for the most part, only their religious work remains. I wonder what secular works they created that were destroyed.

The Doric Arch at Euston train station London (UK)

The World Trade Towers? does that count? I’m surprised that no one has every thought of attacking the pyramids for revenge? Or is that too uncool for terrorists?

@talljasperman Though the loss was heartbreaking, nobody I know would ever consider the world trade center itself a work of art. They were two ugly sticks – art forums frequently complained about their lack of aesthetics.

However, human life aside, in the top floor of WTC, in a very big law firm, were hundreds of drawings and sculptures by the artist Rodin on display; all were destroyed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/20/nyregion/born-hell-lost-after-inferno-rodin-work-trade-center-survived-vanished.html

@MadMadMax I didn’t know that… thank you.

^^Welcome. My brother lost a lot of colleagues, college buddies and friends who worked at
Cantor Fitzgerald.

Lost were paintings by Pablo Picasso, and Roy Lichtenstein; works by Paul Klee and Le Corbusier in the Marriott Hotel’s collection; and Auguste Rodin drawings and sculptures owned by the Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage firm, which lost 650 employees in the disaster and whose late founder was a renowned Rodin collector. Parts of the Calder sculpture were recovered but not enough to fully restore the work. A cast of Rodin’s The Thinker reportedly resurfaced shortly after Sept. 11 but disappeared again; some believe it was stolen from Ground Zero.

The value of art lost was estimated at $100 million from private collections and $10 million in public art.

Thousands of negatives of photos taken by John F. Kennedy’s personal photographer, Jacques Lowe, which had been stored in a safe deposit vault at 5 World Trade Center.

Artifacts from the 19th-century Lower Manhattan neighbourhood of Five Points. About 900,000 objects excavated from an archeological site uncovered in 1991 a few blocks east of the WTC were stored in a room at the 6 World Trade Center building that was destroyed by the collapse of the north tower.

Artifacts from an 18th-century burial ground for free and enslaved Africans that were stored in an adjacent room were saved from among the debris.

Materials in the Pentagon library, which housed 500,000 books, documents and historical materials and was hit by the nose of the plane that crashed into the building, were damaged but the bulk of them was restored.

Twenty-four works in the art collections of the army, navy, air force and marine corps at the Pentagon.

The destruction of the Library at Alexandria, Egypt. It’s impossible to calculate how many great works from antiquity were destroyed, when the library was burned. Great works of literature, philosophy, drama, math, the sciences, all destroyed and gone forever, never to be recovered. For all anyone knows, the secrets to the universe and mankind could have been found in the scrolls; cures for diseases – it’s impossible to tell. A tragic loss.

It is also highly possible that most, if not all, of the works housed in the library at Alexandria had by that time existed in copies in other libraries.

The one single only gospel written by a living real life apostle of Jesus – a short piece w/o miracles – was lost in the Library of Alexandria fire.

Many many ancient works were never copied. Libraries were rare and distant.

Obviously not all was lost since the Italian Renaissance was born of the invention of the printing press, and the immigration of Greek, MIddle Eastern people, Jews, Persians to Venice to work as printers. They brought with them, many ancient scripts and influenced a taste that renewed the classical—works that renewed interest in, and advances in literature, architecture, fine art, humanism, and a world economy.

However, the Dark Ages may have been held at bay if the Library had survived and IF the Church had not found it and it’s contents heretical anyway.

I was surprised nobody mentioned the fate of the Egyptian Sphinx. It was used for target practice by the Ottoman Turks I believe and they blew off it’s face. Imagine how old that was – it went through a number of evolutions as it was – it is theorized that it’s face was originally that of a lion and then much latter was carved to resemble the face of a pharaoh.

The Ottoman Turks did a great deal of damage to the greatest art of the world – based on a belief that imagery was sinful.

I’m very well versed in the latter Roman Empire, Dark Ages up to the Renaissance and I know that the early Christians destroyed almost all of the greatest art of ancient Rome on the basis that it represented idolatry.

I think, and someone might want to correct me if I’m wrong but, the Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed by Ottoman Turks.

What about the Colossus of Rhoads? Do we know how it was destroyed?

@dougiedawg Look up one post. I mentioned the Collossus in my post. I think the Turks ultimately destroyed it – I’ll check it out.

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Colossus_of_Rhodes.html

“The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes on the Greek island of Rhodes by Chares of Lindos between 292 and 280 BC.
It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

It was constructed to celebrate Rhodes’ victory over the ruler of Cyprus, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, who unsuccessfully besieged Rhodes in 305 BC.

Before its destruction, the Colossus of Rhodes stood over 30 meters (107 ft) high, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world.”

The statue stood for 56 years until Rhodes was hit by the 226 BC Rhodes earthquake, when significant damage was also done to large portions of the city, including the harbour and commercial buildings, which were destroyed.

The statue snapped at the knees and fell over on to the land. Ptolemy III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but the oracle of Delphi made the Rhodians afraid that they had offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it.

The remains lay on the ground as described by Strabo (xiv.2.5) for over 800 years, and even broken, they were so impressive that many traveled to see them.

Pliny the Elder remarked that few people could wrap their arms around the fallen thumb and that each of its fingers was larger than most statues.

In 653, an Arab force under Muslim caliph Muawiyah I captured Rhodes, and according to the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor

The same story is recorded by Barhebraeus, writing in Syriac in the 13th century in Edessa] (after the Arab pillage of Rhodes)

“And a great number of men hauled on strong ropes which were tied round the brass Colossus which was in the city and pulled it down. And they weighed from it three thousand loads of Corinthian brass, and they sold it to a certain Jew from Emesa” (the Syrian city of Homs). Theophanes is the sole source of this account and all other sources can be traced to him.”

I’d be a bit reluctant to take a story who’s sole source was a Christian monk who just might have had an ax to grind against Jews and Muslims at face value.

Bingo. That has always been a question put forth regarding that historical data but none other exists.

I suspect the Arabs just chopped in up and sold it themselves. The area was covered with Arab traders during that time period. Just as many Arab traders as Jewish traders and Arab traders created the word “slave.” They stole Slavic men and castrated them for Enuchs to guard harems.

The statue of Saddman Hussein. The Berlin wall. The original video footage of Nosferatu for plagiarism. Some banned books in the 15th century. Mount Rushmore.

The statue of Saddam Hussein wasn’t great art lost to history.

Have you ever seen the Berlin Wall in photos maybe, I’ve really seen it – it was horrible. My son owns a piece of it. It was no loss to anyone.

Mount Rushmore is fine as far as I know – no boo boos. It isn’t lost. You just have find the Dakotas on a map. It’s in one of those states. I’m not big on it myself.

There were many many banned books during the Middle Ages and Renaissance so you’ll have to give me an idea of which ones you feel were extraordinary and loss to humanity.

And now we have Nosferatu and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, separate and both great.

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2011/10/17/dracula-vs-nosferatu-a-true-copyright-horror-story/

@MadMadMax “Mount Rushmore is fine as far as I know – no boo boos. It isn’t lost. You just have find the Dakotas on a map. It’s in one of those states. I’m not big on it myself.”

Well it was carved into a mountain that was sacred to Native Americans, so there is that.

@MadMadMax @Darth_Algar Correct the mountain was defaced with carvings of dead presidents. I prefer natural wonders to be kept natural.

@Darth_Algar I did not know that. I just knew I had a lousy feeling about it. Wow. Well that’s worth saying although it’s not lost fine art of history. Rather touches on a different subject I think.

talljasperman: The mountain may have been sacred to the American Indians as I just learned from Darth, but it was not a natural wonder of the world.

Michaelangelo’s sculpture is done from quarried marble – most of the great sculptures are of quarried marble. Would you complain that the marble was used for the David or Pieta – I don’t think so.

How about Atlantis? They say, if it existed, that it fell through internal strife, not through a natural cataclysm, which came later.