Unconquered Peaks

For as long as we can remember, humans have held a grim fascination for the gory, the gruesome and the grisly – and stories about this have long since enchanted us, whether the local gossip around the latest public execution in the 14th centuries, to the world’s most famous unsolved serial killer Jack the Ripper, to the excellent entertainment that is Buzzfeed Unsolved. But why do humans hold this illogical desire to hear the crimes about our fellow man? And why, in the last half decade has it exploded, enjoying previously unseen popularity?

The destruction of art is as much a part of art history as its creation. From the Roman times to the present-day, people have felt the need to destroy it, often justified by religion, politics, power, and morality. The toppling of statues, the erasure of portraits or the destruction of images reveal what it is that people value in art and why it matters enough to be worth attacking.