Vandalism is any act of destruction or damage free to the public or private property.

Vandalism is the most often buildings and property movable , natural sites, documents or artistic works, and especially anything which is the identity of a culture, its heritage. In common parlance, however, the term is sometimes applied to other types of voluntary depredations.

On a bamboo vandalism, protest art or graffiti ?

The term appears in 1793

The Abb Grgoire and wants to protect the artistic heritage of the Old Regime to the benefit of the people . He wrote in his memoirs: "I created the word to kill the thing" .

The term comes from vandalism Vandals , Germanic hordes who, in 455 , had been sacked Rome, before distinguishing themselves in other looting. When Father Gregory coined the term, he wants to denounce the destruction of national monuments made indiscriminately by the revolutionaries.

Statues in the Cathedral of St Martin in Utrecht , attacked during the iconoclasm of the Reformation in the sixteenth ^century

There was already the end of iconoclasm , created by the Byzantines to describe the image breakers or religious statues, a term used to refer, for example, Protestant iconoclasts of the fifteenth ^century, but the word had a double disadvantage of being too learned and to be associated with religious images . The destruction of buildings and furniture at the time of the revolution go beyond the mere iconoclasm .

The importance of the phenomenon in France is reflected in the vigor with which, from 1795 , the fight against vandalism to develop the means. Alexandre Lenoir was in charge of creating a museum of French monuments , castles inventory started by Louis XVI was completed in 1795.

The Romantics are very sensitive to the value of the ruins of the past and Victor Hugo , based on the report of an inspector general of historical monuments, Ludovic Vitet , writes the War destroyers in 1832.

In 1837 , Francois Guizot created a Commission on Historical Monuments. Prosper Merimee , who succeeds Vitet historic monument, this rescue work continues. The listing of endangered sites for Historic Buildings can save them as is the case of the Church of Our Lady of La Charite-sur-Loire . In many cases a restoration is necessary . Around 1830 began an extensive restoration movement in which heritage is illustrated Viollet-le-Duc.

But good will is not always enough, and the restoration of the monuments are not necessarily conducted in the state of the art. This leads Count Montalembert to define a new class of vandals: there were destroyers there now ill Restaurant . Louis Reau call them vandals benevolent .

The idea of heritage made its way across the Europe. In Britain , there were societies , such as: Society of Antiquaries of London , founded in 1707 , or at: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland , dating from 1780 , but these organizations' primary concern was the study and description of monuments and relics of the past. When 1849 is created the in: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, it aims to save additional ancient monuments from the depredations of time and men. In 1850 , Emperor Franz Joseph signed a decree to create a study commission and historic preservation .

As attitudes to evolve, the word "vandalism" is enriched and nuance. A law of 1906 prohibiting the export of objects of worship classified shows some drift nationalist of the term. The proliferation of private companies and community groups whose objective is to protect local heritage may be unknown to authorities in Paris reflects on the entire territory of awareness of threats to the monuments of the past, and wish to address them.

The war damage , including aerial bombardment that affect unique monuments are considered vandalism, and some forms of destruction that were a given for reasons of public order (demolition of an ancient monument to build a new one, for example site of Haussmann in Paris) become forms of vandalism in the eyes of the public . Industrial buildings entering heritage and therefore must be protected. The law becomes binding for promoters or managers of land , with a duty of preventive archaeological excavations in France. In the United Kingdom, a nongovernmental organization , Rescue , founded in 1971 , is seeking aid from the government to organize the rescue excavations . In some countries, notably the U.S., it is not until the work of archaeologists, anthropologists who escape the blame for vandalism, for example in the controversy over the Kennewick Man .

By extending the concept of vandalism also cease to concern only the rich countries. There is a time of vandalism, which compensates for the restoration, but also a vandalism of misery, when countries can not afford to maintain their historic status or must be sacrificed to the imperatives of development. One of the triggers of this awareness is the decision of President Nasser to build a new dam on the Nile threatened the temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel and the Sanctuary of Isis at Philae. From 1972 , the UNESCO proposes a Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which must serve to guarantee the protection of sites considered World Heritage Site, registering in the World Heritage List. International public opinion is mobilized to what it considers a threat of vandalism unbearable. Abu Simbel is saved.

Since 1933, Raphael Lemkin proposed a component cultural genocide , which he called "vandalism."

But the word vandalism has not finished expanding its meaning. In 1901 , creates a Society for the Protection of landscape and aesthetics of France . With the development of ecology and environmental protection, the term has come to denote both natural degradation through pollution or unplanned urban areas. Natural sites are now also classified and protected as much as possible in all kinds of vandals who threaten .

By dint of being used as a term of opprobrium, word vandalism eventually lose the sense of an attack against the estate, never to indicate that the wanton destruction or evil. Jean-Pierre Changeux speaks of ecological vandalism , Jacques Testart qualify GMOs Liberal vandalism . The vandal is one that attacks the very things worthless asset, which destroyed the furniture, burn cars, graffiti covers the walls, sending Internet viruses, inserts cheeky comments in articles.

Types of vandalism

Prudish vandalism: the representation of Ganymede was covered with a mosaic by Christian censors

Vandalism intolerant: enrollment in Arabic has been vandalized

vandalism childlike and irresponsible

Walls of the Temple of Philae, Egypt

The various authors (Montalembert, Reau, Fleury and Leproux example) distinguish different types of vandalism motivated by the authors. These distinctions allow them to retroactively classify in the category of vandalism acts that their time would have trained differently. In Verrines , for example, Cicero describes the actions of his opponent:

I'll talk about what Verres calls his taste, his friends, his illness, his mania; Sicilians, his brigandage, I do not know what words I used.

Yet that is exactly what Louis Reau call, two thousand years later, Elgin . Louis Reau and he gives the catalog and inventory the following examples:

• Intolerance

Acts of vandalism are often committed in the context of wars, wars of religion or political turmoil. It addresses the most visible symbols of the enemy group:

• Vandalism warrior barbarian invaders called the Roman Empire, the Vikings in the eighth ^century.
• Vandalism religious Christians to the pagan idols, Protestants against the Catholic monuments and symbols (and now the Taliban against the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan ). Monotheistic religions that forbid images contain fanatics eager to destroy all that they seem a threat to their dogma.
• Vandalism supporter: throughout history, the destruction of monuments erected by a previous government has often been the symbol of the power transition.

But even without the excuse of the violence of the times, there are still forms of intolerance such as

• Vandalism prudish: That one form of vandalism of censorship : it happens that a change in the manners prevailing yield unacceptable works deemed obscene or pornographic. This is the case of sculptures hammered, medieval manuscripts deleted or "painted" (as the Last Judgement of Michelangelo 's nudes which were dressed again on the orders of the pope).
• Ignorance or lack of reflection

• Vandalism superstitious addressing images of people or things, is believed to address the thing or person. Vasari in his Lives of illustrious painters reported mutilation suffered by a fresco by Andrea del Castagno representing Christ at the column: This image is such that if it had not been defaced and damaged due to the ignorance of those who wanted revenge on the Jews, it would surely one of the finest works of Andrea .
• Vandalism sentimental: they destroyed the monuments because of the painful memories attached to them.
• Vandalism puerile: childish degradation of buildings, some desecration of places of memory loaded with idle or drunken people .
• Vandalism ignoring: the first archaeological excavations ( Pompeii , for example), conducted in defiance of common sense by amateurs full of goodwill.
• Vandalism pathological destruction of Artemision of Ephesus by Erostratus.

• The greed

• The destruction of cities in wartime is often a double sacking of their wealth. It was also during the revolution, where the wonderful heritage of French and Flemish tapestries were destroyed to retrieve the son of gold or silver. The grave robbers are another example of greedy vandals.

• The theft of artworks resold on the parallel market. During the second Iraq war, the Baghdad museum is immediately delivered to the vandals.

• Vandalism imperialist

• The Elgin, according to Louis Reau, named after Lord Elgin who brought Britain bas-reliefs of the Parthenon. Napoleon distinguished himself in the plundering of Egypt and Italy . The idea is that some of the treasures of ancient art were safer in countries like France and Great Britain: vandalism vandalism against allogeneic endogenous. But this practice dates back to antiquity. In Signs , Cicero earns Sgestains In a war that they supported him on their behalf against the Carthaginians, their city was taken and destroyed. Everything that could be used for beautification of Carthage was won by the victors.

Finally, we can also talk of a friendly vandalism, such as the U.S. bombing on France to prepare for the landing in 1944, which destroyed the old city of Brest and its harbor, for example.

A contemporary author, Dario Gamboni , distinguishes him vandalism for vandalism, political vandalism, and vandalism as reasons the censors major vandalism in the ^nineteenth and ^twentieth centuries .

More difficult to classify because the subject of controversy between opponents and supporters (who see an act of civil resistance), but probably belonged to the category political vandalism protestor in France, mowing operations GMOs or removal of fast-food restaurant are considered vandalism and are punishable by law .

The consequences of vandalism

The splendor of the castle-on-Mehun Yvre, ransacked during the religious wars and destroyed in the seventeenth ^century survives only in this miniature

Besides the loss of irreplaceable treasures and monuments, vandalism induces a truncated view of history when whole sections of a culture disappear because of mass vandalism. The history of vandalism is then used to compile an inventory of missing works, so that historians can take them into account in their recreation of an era.

Vandalism Today

Recent cases of vandalism include the destruction of monuments in the Soviet Union after its collapse (political vandalism), the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban (religious vandalism).

Literature and Heritage

• Walter Scott , The Antiquary, 1816
• Prosper Merimee , The Venus of Ille , 1837

References

See also

Related articles

• Iconoclasm
• Erostratus
• Hermocopides
• English Heritage
• Dissolution of the Monasteries
• Joseph Augustine Crassous
• Pierre Pinoncelli

External Links

• (En) Denunciation of vandalism of Armenian heritage
• (En) Lists of Defence Associations of French heritage

Bibliography

• Louis Reau, expanded edition by Michel Fleury and Guy-Michel Leproux History of vandalism - the destroyed monuments of French art, Paris, 1994 ( ISBN 2221 07015 1 )
• Michael Camille, Obscenity Under Erasure. Censorship in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - Obscenity. Social Control and Artistic Creation in the European Middle Ages, Jan M. Ziolkowski (eds.), Leiden-Boston-Kln, Brill, 1998
  pp. 139-154
• Leopold Niepce, Monuments of art from the primate of Lyons destroyed or disposed of during the occupation Protestant in 1562, 1881
  ed. Lyons, Rene George, 1998
• Dario Gamboni , The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism Since The French Revolution, Yale University Press, 1997 ( ISBN 0300071701 )
• Jean-Michel Leniaud, Introduction to "Memoirs" of the Abbe Gregoire, editions of Health, Paris, 1989
• L. Reau, Histoire du vandalism destroyed the monuments of French art, Robert Laffont "Mouthpieces", Paris, 1884
  expanded edition. 1st edition: 1958
• F. Robina, three hundred and forty years of struggle against vandalism, Les Cahiers de la Ligue urban and rural
  3rd Quarter 1966

• Portal Criminology
• Portal of Culture

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