photo of sitting man

Anders Rydell, 2024 Photo: Rickard L. Eriksson

The War on Cultural Heritage

Lecture with Anders Rydell

4.5 2024

Malmö

In connection with our ongoing exhibition “Unhealed”, we present the author Anders Rydell, who in several books has depicted the destruction and plundering of cultural heritage. In his lecture, he touches on the attack on Palmyra (2015), but also draws parallels to the destruction of the Nazis during World War II and to the war in Ukraine.

In 2015, the Islamic State attacked the world heritage site of Palmyra in Syria, blowing up some of the city’s main monuments. But why did the terrorist group attack the cultural heritage? The author Anders Rydell has depicted the destruction and looting of cultural heritage in several books. In his latest book Destroy the false gods (Albert Bonnier’s publishing house 2023) he writes together with Jesper Huor about the attack of modern jihadism on the cultural heritage of the Middle East, from the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan to Palmyra.