Isil rampage: a threat to cultural heritage that belongs to all

James Cuno, the president of the Getty Trust, says the world must find ways to intervene and protect antiquities when nation-states cannot do so

Deteriorating security in Syria and Iraq, and the tenacity and complexity of Isil, requires a multilateral response from the international community, and a rethinking of how it can overcome the inherent limitations and obstacles of the nation-state–based regime for the protection of cultural heritage. If the heritage destroyed and under threat by Isil “belongs to all Syrians and all humanity,” as the Unesco director-general Irina Bokova has claimed it, the international community must find a way to overcome the limitations imposed on cultural heritage by the UN.