- 6 hours ago
Some people just can’t leave history alone. Join us as we count down the most shocking historical objects that were damaged, destroyed, or carelessly mishandled by people who really should have known better. From priceless artifacts to iconic relics, these blunders prove that one moment of stupidity can wreck centuries of history.
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00:00The temple that stood for 2,000 years, tonight, a pile of rubble.
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:06And today, we're counting down our picks for the most priceless historical objects
00:10that were ruined by those making careless decisions.
00:18Number 50, the Coliseum.
00:21You'd think one of the most historically significant buildings ever
00:24would be treated with more respect.
00:26However, some people look at an architectural marvel like the Coliseum
00:29and see nothing but an opportunity to immortalize themselves.
00:32See this person just blatantly carving his name.
00:37And some graffiti is one thing, but this is the Coliseum.
00:40Several tourists have engraved their own names into the limestone and concrete walls.
00:44Each perpetrator that's been caught has been threatened with a hefty fine
00:47and plenty of public humiliation from the press.
00:50But that still hasn't deterred more from making attempts of their own.
00:53As you see in the video, I kind of approach him,
00:55and all he could do is, like, smile at me,
00:57which, obviously, he's got no shame whatsoever.
00:59Seeing a pillar of the Roman Empire reduced to amateur graffiti practice
01:03is enough to make any historian cry.
01:05And unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon.
01:09Are you not entertained?
01:10Number 49, 1870s Martin Guitar.
01:14One man's movie magic is another's wrecked antique.
01:17While filming 2015's The Hateful Eight,
01:20Kurt Russell was tasked with ripping a replica of an 1870s Martin guitar
01:23from Jennifer Jason Leigh's hands and destroying it.
01:26Give me that guitar.
01:31Music time's over.
01:34He did, and the take went perfectly,
01:36save for the fact that the fake had never been switched in.
01:39Russell had unknowingly smashed the real instrument,
01:42to the dismay of the other actors and the museum it belonged to.
01:46When we did the take, you can even see it,
01:48I kind of give it an extra beat,
01:50and nothing, so I go ahead and smash the guitar.
01:53Whether it was a last-second call from director Quentin Tarantino
01:55or simply a mistake by a prop hand, we'll never know.
01:58The guitar is back on display in all its broken glory,
02:01serving as a reminder of why the museum
02:04will likely never loan their pieces out to filmmakers again.
02:07For life, Jim Jones,
02:09I sentence you across the stony sea.
02:17Colonialism can lead to a never-ending spiral of violence
02:20against both people and places.
02:36Yuan Mingyuan, otherwise known as Old Summer Palace,
02:39was once a proud series of palaces and gardens
02:42belonging to some of China's most powerful leaders.
02:44During the Second Opium War,
02:46it was taken over and thoroughly looted by European soldiers.
02:49The French then began looting the Summer Palace en masse.
02:52One French officer snatched a pearl necklace
02:56whose gems were the size of marbles,
02:58and it sold in Hong Kong for over $3,000.
03:01When they caught wind that the Qing government
03:03had captured 19 of their own and sentenced them to death,
03:06they dialed up their destruction even further.
03:09Over a period of four days in 1860,
03:11the British and French razed the palace to the ground,
03:14wiping out thousands of years' worth of artifacts.
03:16To this day, the ruins still remain
03:19and exist as a constant reminder of their occupation.
03:32No. 47. Rembrandt's Night Watch
03:38Art can evoke many feelings,
03:41some more intense than others.
03:42Rembrandt's The Night Watch is the perfect example.
03:45The Night Watch is one of the most famous paintings in the world.
03:49More than two and a half million people come and see it each year.
03:52The large piece depicting a French civil guard
03:54has been the victim of several acts of vandalism
03:57since its completion in 1692.
03:59Varnish was able to protect the painting from a knife attack in 1911,
04:03but its removal in the 1940s meant that a 1975 attack by Wilhelm de Reich could succeed.
04:09It left several slashes and required four years of restoration work.
04:13That wouldn't be the last attack.
04:15In 1990, another man sprayed acid directly onto the canvas.
04:19Though it was able to be fixed,
04:22we wouldn't doubt that it's now watched like a hawk
04:24to ensure another incident won't occur.
04:26I think this is really, you know, the best, the most optimal situation.
04:29No. 46. Hadrosoridae Fossils
04:32When all that connects us to those who walked Earth millions of years ago is fragile material,
04:36each site of their existence should be treated with care.
04:39When the bones are in the bedrock here at this site,
04:43they're mush.
04:44They basically have the consistency of cream cheese.
04:46So you do have to be very careful with them.
04:48Unfortunately, that was not the case for a 23-foot Hadrosoridae Fossil found in Canada.
04:54Discovered in June of 2012,
04:56it was carefully covered by the archaeological team
04:58before it could be dug up the following month.
05:00When they returned, however, they were met with a horrific site.
05:04The fossil had been ripped apart and scattered beyond repair.
05:07It was an act of purely senseless violence that has yet to be solved.
05:11What was a chance to learn more about the world before us
05:14was snuffed out for seemingly no reason at all.
05:16We got dinosaurs. Awesome.
05:19Number 45. Abu Bakr's Home
05:21While it's tragic to see any historic building torn down to make way for a new business,
05:26it happening to religious sites feels even worse.
05:28As one of the first caliphs of Islam, Abu Bakr was highly revered during his reign.
05:33You think about someone who is quick to believe, quick to do any good.
05:39Sadly, that respect had an expiration date.
05:42In the 2010s, the site where his home once stood was razed so that a Hilton hotel could take its
05:47place.
05:48It wasn't the first holy site to be removed,
05:50but proved that even those directly connected to the Prophet Muhammad weren't safe.
05:54Part of it still remains just in front of the new building,
05:57serving a reminder of what was lost and the ultimate cost of luxury.
06:01There will never be another Abu Bakr.
06:03There will never be another one.
06:05Number 44. Arthur's Un
06:07The demolition of historical sites sadly isn't a new phenomenon.
06:11For centuries, artifacts have been at the whims of careless individuals.
06:15Arthur's Un is one of the most tragic cases.
06:18Are you ready for a war?
06:19Thought to have been an ancient Roman temple,
06:21it stood in Scotland until the 18th century as one of the country's most unique buildings.
06:26In 1743, Sir Michael Bruce of Stenhouse tore it down so that he could use the stones in a dam
06:32he was constructing.
06:33To make things worse, it was swept away by a flood five years later,
06:37meaning his devastating act was for nothing.
06:39Some of the foundational stones were reportedly found in the 1980s,
06:43but nothing was done to begin the restoration of this unique archival structure.
06:47If I swear to him, then all that I am is dead already.
06:53Number 43. Jandy No. 11
06:55For well over a thousand years,
06:58the Bujang Valley was the relatively untouched home of countless ancient ruins and relics.
07:02Bujang Valley merupakan satu kawasan bersejarah yang lama,
07:07yang wujudnya 7, 8, 8, 10 Masihi berdasarkan catatan data professional Dr. Mata Saidin
07:13lepas carbonating di tapak ekologi Sengai Batu.
07:16That all changed in 2013,
07:17when a temple primarily known as Chandy No. 11 dated back 1200 years was leveled by a land developer.
07:24And now when I heard this thing has been demolished, I feel very sad.
07:29Despite attempts to legally stop the destruction,
07:32the government claimed that since it had been on private property
07:35and hadn't been deemed a historical site, nothing could be done.
07:38The incident was so severe that it quickly led to the rest of the area becoming protected.
07:42It was proof that time alone isn't enough to make some people prioritize
07:46respecting ancient areas over their own interests.
07:49Number 42. Drawings from the cave of Marillard-Supérieur
07:52Paintings that have been left on the walls of caves
07:55give us a glimpse into the innermost thoughts of our ancestors.
07:58We are coming here to one of the great spots of the cave,
08:01which is the famous panel of the horses.
08:05Each one is a priceless reminder of where we came from.
08:08The drawings of bison found in France's cave of Marillard-Supérieur were no exception,
08:13until one fateful day in 1992.
08:15A religious youth group, Éclaireurs de France,
08:18took it upon themselves to clean the cave.
08:20In the process of doing so, they washed away the prehistoric sketches.
08:24Any answers about our past that could have been gleaned from the work were wiped away for good.
08:29What exactly took place here, only the paintings could tell us.
08:33The group was met with pointed scorn,
08:35and was even awarded the satirical Ig Nobel Prize for their misguided attempt at helping.
08:40Number 41. House of Wisdom
08:42There's no telling how much ancient information has been permanently wiped from the earth thanks to warfare.
08:47Baghdad's House of Wisdom is one of the most unfortunate victims.
08:51While the House of Wisdom was a place for scholars to converse with other like minds and conduct research,
08:56it was also a place that raised and cultivated intellectual minds.
08:59Built in the 8th century, it quickly established itself as the largest library of Islam's golden age.
09:05It housed books written in several languages on a wide variety of topics.
09:09Everything came crashing down in 1258, when the Mongol army commenced the siege of Baghdad.
09:15The House of Wisdom was devastated from top to bottom,
09:17with the building being demolished and the books discarded in the Tigris River.
09:21Though some of the works were able to be saved beforehand,
09:24the act was so ruinous that it was even considered the end of prosperous times.
09:29It's crazy to imagine what would have happened if the Mongols never came to Baghdad.
09:33Would we live in a world that's more advanced, or would it be more or less the same?
09:36In the end, we'll never know.
09:39Number 40.
09:39The Portland Vos.
09:41The work of artistic restorers cannot be discounted.
09:44Without their efforts, we would have lost truly priceless works of art like the Portland Vos.
09:48It is absolutely exquisite.
09:50We don't know what the figures represent.
09:53Believed to have been created as far back as A.D. 1,
09:56it's one of ancient Rome's most valuable contributions.
09:59It was nearly ruined in 1845, when an intoxicated man smashed it with a sculpture.
10:04He went to jail, and the owner decided against pursuing further litigation.
10:09That same year, John Doubleday stepped in and essentially brought the piece back to life,
10:13though he missed some shards in the process.
10:15It has stayed intact for further renovations since then, with the last one occurring in 1988.
10:21The freeze on Wedgwood's piece is meticulously replicated.
10:25Number 39.
10:26The Singapore Stone.
10:27Despite linguists' best efforts, there are some prehistoric inscriptions that have yet to be cracked.
10:32In some cases, their work was made harder by the senseless acts carried out hundreds of years beforehand.
10:38This was the case with the Singapore Stone, a large piece of sandstone engraved with an ancient message.
10:43We don't have information on who made the stone.
10:46Actually, the stone is part of a natural rock formation near the mouth of the Singapore River.
10:54It was discovered by the British in 1819, but its inscription wasn't enough to protect it.
10:59It was blown up in 1843 by the English, so that they could have more space to create their own
11:04structure, Fort Fullerton.
11:06Since then, fragments have been collected and preserved so that they may someday be translated.
11:11But with only pieces to go off of, it's a mystery that may never be solved.
11:15It's important to preserve these stones because they are the earliest known form of writing found in Singapore.
11:23Number 38. Michelangelo's Pieta
11:26Unfortunately, an artist's work is never safe, not even those completed by a Renaissance icon.
11:32When Michelangelo completed Pieta, a sculpture depicting Mary holding Jesus following his crucifixion,
11:37he had no idea of the damage that would befall it centuries later.
11:41A draped figure of the Virgin Mary with the dead Christ in her arms.
11:45In 1972, it was brutally attacked by a man named Laszlo Thoth, who believed he was the son of God.
11:52Using a hammer, he bludgeoned the artwork over a dozen times.
11:56By the time the smoke cleared and he had been restrained, Mary had copious damage to her face and arm.
12:01Afterward, Thoth was deported back to Australia, and Restorer spent five months painstakingly fixing what he had wrecked.
12:08Within 10 months, it was back on display, behind bulletproof glass.
12:12It's not agony, it's the beauty of God's son-made man.
12:19Number 37. Namdemon Gate
12:21Anger can take someone to a truly horrible place.
12:25For centuries, the Namdemon Gate was the oldest wooden structure in all of Seoul.
12:29Korea's national treasure number one, Song Rae Moon, has once again revealed its magnificence to the public.
12:36It became a national icon shortly after being completed in 1398,
12:40welcoming countless foreign allies and serving as a representation of the area's history.
12:44In 2008, it was set ablaze by Chui Zhonggi,
12:47who felt slighted after not being fully compensated by developers unrelated to the site.
12:52The fire he started permeated the thick wood of the structure,
12:55which had been so well-built that water alone wasn't able to put it out.
12:59It was rebuilt over a period of five years and reopened to the public in 2013,
13:03but the memory of that fateful night lives on.
13:06I hope it is well-maintained and preserved so that our descendants can also enjoy the gate for the many
13:12years to come.
13:13Number 36. The Nemi Ships
13:15World War II led to the wreckage of countless historically significant buildings and items,
13:20intentionally or not.
13:22Unearthed in an Italian lake in the 1930s,
13:24the Nemi Ships were believed to have been constructed during Emperor Caligula's reign.
13:29As they drained these lakes, what was exposed was these two massive, beautifully built ships.
13:34Following their excavation, a museum was built around them so that they could be studied and kept safe.
13:38Towards the tail end of the war in 1944, German forces set up camp by the ships.
13:44When Allied troops fired at them, the artifacts became an unintended target.
13:48The constant stream of artillery eventually started a fire, and soon, both vessels had burned to the ground.
13:53After years of remaining intact, all it took was one night for history to slip through their fingers, literally.
13:59They were built in the most advanced fashion of the day.
14:04Number 35. The Sycamore Gap Tree
14:06There are some acts so abhorrent, you can't help but wonder what drove the perpetrator to do it.
14:12That has been the burning question on the minds of those affected by the iconic Sycamore Gap Tree being cut
14:17down in 2023.
14:18It was a picture-perfect icon of the Northumberland landscape.
14:22After standing proudly near Hadrian's Wall for well over a century and serving as the backdrop in countless people's memories,
14:29it was suddenly felled one night with no explanation.
14:32In 2024, it was discovered to have been the work of Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers.
14:37They even filmed their crime, which was shown at their trial along with several messages of them gloating about it.
14:43They were both found guilty in May of 2025.
14:46It really is quite heartbreaking now for it to be gone, so let's hope that something grows back.
14:53Number 34. Herculaneum
14:55What is it about an ancient building that makes people in the modern age want to leave their mark?
14:59In 2024, a building in the ruins of Herculaneum fell victim to an act of careless vandalism.
15:05When the city was rediscovered in the 1700s, excavators found what could be the richest repository of ancient Western wisdom.
15:14A Dutch tourist used a permanent marker to scrawl his signature on the wall, causing it to garishly stick out
15:20among the other markings on the structure.
15:21Though it wasn't the first time the city had been subject to unwanted graffiti, this was one of the most
15:27noticeable.
15:27The perpetrator was not only caught and charged, he was also required to pay for the restoration work himself.
15:33If that doesn't incentivize people to leave historical items alone, we don't know what will.
15:38Number 33. Picasso's La Rève
15:41It takes a split second to plummet the value of a priceless item.
15:45Picasso's La Rève showcased his expertise in cubism, which appealed to several art collectors.
15:50If you look close enough within the face, you see that in all of Picasso's paintings, there was sort of
15:56this half-division of the face.
15:58It was purchased several times before falling into the hands of casino owner Steve Wynn in 2001.
16:03It soon became his prized jewel, which he planned to sell for a whopping $139 million after five years.
16:11Unfortunately, things would fall apart just one night before his big sale.
16:15"'155 million bucks.'"
16:17Showing off for his friends, he accidentally misjudged his arm placement and punctured the canvas with his elbow.
16:23In just one moment, it depreciated in value by over $50 million, making it one of the most expensive mistakes
16:29in modern art history.
16:31This is the second Picasso owned by Steve Wynn that's been damaged.
16:35He himself damaged another one years ago when he accidentally hit it with his elbow.
16:40I remember that.
16:41Number 32. The Tree of Tenerée
16:43Some demolished objects can be restored, but others are simply gone forever.
16:48The Tree of Tenerée stood in place for 300 years, acting as a beacon for those roving through the Sahara
16:53Desert.
16:54The story of the last Tree of Tenerée is short, sad, and stupid.
17:00With the climate being so arid, it was the only plant life that was able to survive.
17:05Eventually, it wasn't nature that led to its end. It was a singular moment of human error.
17:10In 1973, the tree was suddenly struck by a truck driver who was reportedly inebriated at the time.
17:16Once called the most remote tree in the world, it still managed to be hit by a drunk driver.
17:23Now, the only reminder of its existence is an eerie metal pole, a cold reminder of what once was, and
17:30will most likely never occur again.
17:32Number 31. Ai Weiwei Vaz
17:35When it comes to the destruction of ancient objects, where should the line be drawn?
17:39In 2014, Maximo Caminero smashed an urn that had been painted by contemporary artist Ai Weiwei.
17:45His intention was to protest the lack of local artists that had never been put on display.
17:53However, what he didn't know was that the object he took his anger out on dated back thousands of years
17:58to the Han dynasty.
17:59The incident started a discussion on the difference between Weiwei arguably defacing these pieces for his own art,
18:05and them being recklessly destroyed in the name of attempted justice.
18:08To destroy somebody's artwork to get that kind of attention, it seems not to support his argument.
18:17While devastating, it showed that these events could still be nuanced.
18:21Number 30. William Shakespeare's House
18:23Changes made to historical sites are not ideal, especially those done out of spite.
18:28After Shakespeare's death in 1616, his final home new place was initially passed down to his family.
18:34It maintained its original look until 1702, when it was later bought and renovated into a contemporary style.
18:40Things went from bad to worse when it was bought by Reverend Francis Gastrell.
18:44He grew tired of fans coming to view the property, leading to him removing a tree supposedly planted by the
18:49playwright.
18:50Tensions between Gastrell and the town escalated until he demolished the property in 1759.
18:56He was swiftly driven away, and while the remaining land has been preserved, nothing has been built on it since.
19:02Number 29. Rock art of Lake Mead National Park
19:05What seems like innocent fun can still result in destruction.
19:09While shooting paintballs in 2010, a man set his sights on several glyphs created by the surrounding Native populations centuries
19:15beforehand.
19:16He littered both them and the surrounding rock faces with paint, creating an eyesore.
19:21He was quickly caught and given several citations for the crimes he committed.
19:24After being tried and found guilty, he received 15 months in prison, community service, and just under $10,000 in
19:31fines.
19:32It served as a reminder to all paintball enthusiasts to be respectful of where they shoot or face the consequences.
19:39Number 28. Aboriginal artwork
19:41Signs of civilization's earliest humans are precious to many, but not everyone seems to agree.
19:47Until 2016, the art found in Tasmania's Nirmana Nala Caves remained untouched by modern humans.
19:53In May of that year, it was discovered that the ancient drawings had been mindlessly scratched.
19:58One of the destroyed pieces was a stencil of a hand, vital work that gave insight into the minds of
20:04our predecessors.
20:058,000 years of respect being violated in a moment of pure selfishness is already a slap in the face.
20:10But what added insult to injury is that it was found just before a day remembering the colonialism faced by
20:16the Aboriginal people.
20:17To this day, the Vandals have yet to be found.
20:20Number 27. Qing Dynasty Vases
20:22In a split second, everything can change.
20:25Nick Flynn learned this the hard way after visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England.
20:30For the last 50 years, they've stood on the now infamous windowsill at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
20:35After realizing he had taken the wrong staircase, he attempted to correct himself.
20:39And a combination of untied shoelaces and a lack of a railing resulted in him landing directly onto a set
20:45of Qing Dynasty vases.
20:46All three were broken, but he didn't seem to care, given that he later left without saying a word.
20:52He was eventually arrested a few months afterwards, but managed to evade any legal or financial repercussions.
20:57Even after the national outcry, he maintained that the incident was not his fault.
21:02They will, though, make a brief appearance before then at an exhibition here on conservation entitled Mission Impossible.
21:09A chance for Nick Flynn to take another look at this work in progress.
21:12Hopefully this time, though, he'll pay more attention to his footwear.
21:16Number 26. Goblin Valley Hoodoo
21:18Sometimes, a code of honor is nothing more than words on a piece of paper.
21:22While the Boy Scouts of America claims to teach its members about making good choices, some of their leaders seem
21:27to have missed the memo.
21:28This video touched off a criminal investigation into the toppling of the Jurassic-era boulder at a Utah park.
21:35In 2013, a troop leader was filmed by his friends intentionally toppling a natural rock formation called a hoodoo at
21:42Goblin Valley State Park.
21:43The delicate rock formation, which was thought to have been standing for 165 million years, fell victim to the men's
21:50ignorance, as they claimed it was a danger to other park-goers.
21:53It's all about saving lives here at Goblin Valley.
21:55As a result, two of the men were removed from the Boy Scouts, and they were hit with fines and
22:00a year of probation, both of which paled in comparison to their original offense.
22:05Number 25. The Amber Room
22:07War can lead to countless acts of senseless destruction, with nothing being seen as off-limits.
22:12The legendary Amber Room. An entire room carved from amber, the gold of the Baltic. Spectacular, priceless, and missing without
22:23a trace for more than 80 years.
22:25This was unfortunately the case for the Amber Room, a structure constructed of gold leaf and precious gemstones.
22:31It took years to build, and was eventually installed within a Russian palace during the 18th century.
22:36They weren't the only ones who saw immense value in it.
22:39When German soldiers invaded the Soviet Union during World War II, curators attempted to protect the aging room, but their
22:46efforts were unfortunately squandered.
22:48Within three days, it had been taken apart.
22:50The Germans found it very quickly and did what they called securing, which is nothing other than looting.
22:56Even after the war ended, the full contents of the room were never found, and the search is still ongoing
23:01to this day.
23:02Number 24. Juken Gorge Caves
23:04A legal loophole is all it took for a piece of history to be destroyed.
23:08The traditional owners' concerns about the mining activity in the area couldn't be clearer, and yet late last month, two
23:15rock shelters at the 46,000-year-old site were obliterated by Rio Tinto to allow for the expansion of
23:22the Brockman IV iron ore mine.
23:25As per mining law in Australia, once a company has been given permission to work on a site, new information
23:30cannot prevent it from occurring.
23:32Even though the significance of the Juken Gorge Caves was well-known for years, Rio Tinto was still given permission
23:38to mine in 2013.
23:40Many protested that the caves were of significant importance, being over 4,600 years old and containing items of archaeological
23:47and scientific relevance.
23:48The company still went through with their demolition in 2020.
23:52It resulted in immediate public backlash and a national inquiry, eventually forcing the corporation to apologize.
23:58We were very, very heartened to hear and see that people were very, very upset about what happened.
24:08Number 23. The Luxor Temple
24:10Something of historical importance being destroyed in an accident stings but can potentially be forgiven.
24:16Something wrecked out of pure ignorance is not.
24:19The photograph triggered heated discussion online after it was posted on Friday evening last week.
24:25Many condemned the act as a priceless act of vandalism and disrespectful to cultural relics.
24:30The Luxor Temple in Egypt has been standing for over a millennium and was the crowning location of several pharaohs.
24:37In 2013, a 15-year-old from China scratched a message into one of the engravings there.
24:42The vandalism went viral in his home country, leading to him being doxxed.
24:46A Chinese tourist who defaced an ancient Egyptian monument in Luxor was hunted down by internet users
24:52who urged his parents to apologize after they posted the family's personal detail in an online shame campaign.
24:59While his parents apologized, the next day his school's computers were hacked to showcase his misdeed.
25:05Luckily, his engraving was removed, and the outcry from internet users and various Chinese spokespeople served as the perfect punishment.
25:13Number 22. The Virgin Mary's Finger
25:15There are some actions so poorly thought out that you have to wonder why they were attempted in the first
25:20place.
25:21Outrage at a Florence museum after an American tourist snapped the finger off a 600-year-old marble statue of
25:28the Virgin Mary.
25:29Believed to have been created by Giovanni d'Ambrogio six centuries ago,
25:33the statue of the Virgin Mary had become a cornerstone of Florence's Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.
25:37In 2013, a tourist visiting from the United States attempted to measure his hand against the sculptures.
25:44In the process, he managed to snap off its pinky finger.
25:47Although he expressed remorse over the error, the damage was already done.
25:51It serves as a perfect reminder of why museums have strict rules on touching the exhibits.
25:56A museum spokesperson said that the fundamental rules for visiting a museum had been forgotten.
26:01Number 21. The Elgin Marbles
26:03Colonialism has resulted in several countries' artifacts being taken and represented in another country's museums.
26:09The Elgin Marbles, a series of sculptures removed from the Parthenon and other parts of the Acropolis in the 1800s,
26:15is a prime example of this phenomenon.
26:17I think it obviously has always been a topic of debate ever since the objects came to London and into
26:23the British Museum.
26:24It's not a new debate.
26:25Unfortunately, along with being stolen, they and the Parthenon itself were also inadvertently damaged.
26:30In an attempt to restore the artwork so it could be displayed,
26:33several chemicals and tools were utilized in order to clean it.
26:37It did damage some of these pieces.
26:38It was to expect it.
26:41However, the abrasive material of the latter resulted in many of the statue's distinctive details being erased.
26:47The level of damage has been debated for years,
26:49but even if the damage due to cleaning was overblown,
26:52incidences of casual vandalism from visitors is not.
26:56Number 20. The Statue of the Two Hercules
26:58We've seen a spate of selfie mishaps in the early 21st century,
27:02from costly accidents to tragic deaths.
27:05It seems like people will do anything to get the perfect snap.
27:08A 300-year-old statue featuring two depictions of Hercules
27:12has long been a symbol of the city of Cremona, Italy.
27:15But the legendary hero's statue was no match for the selfie obsession of two tourists
27:19who decided to climb it for a quick photo.
27:22The men toppled and shattered the marble crown on the emblem held by the pair of Hercules figures.
27:28And unfortunately, this wasn't even the first time holidaymakers have damaged historical Italian monuments.
27:34It's like a historical piece, like why do you need your name in it?
27:38You didn't build it.
27:40Number 19. Dunster's Cobblestone Paths
27:43Dunster's Somerset is known for being an extremely well-preserved example of a medieval English village.
27:49It houses a 1,000-year-old castle and contained beautiful cobblestone paths that dated back to the Bronze Age.
27:55However, after numerous reports of people tripping on the ancient stones,
27:59the village's council decided to rip up the millennia-old cobblestones and replace them with smoother paving stones.
28:06The villagers, who initially supported the idea,
28:08then showed their intense hatred of the new paving stones by complaining to the media.
28:12The council then decided to rip up the slabs at significant cost
28:16and replace them with stones that fit more with the village's aesthetic.
28:20Number 18. An Ancient Chinese Vos
28:23Ever looked at Chinese porcelain hundreds of years old and thought,
28:27man, this would sure make a nice table lamp?
28:29Well, that's what must have happened before someone drilled a hole in this Qing dynasty vase
28:34to push an electrical cable through.
28:36Decades later, a woman who had inherited the vase took it to be valued,
28:40only to be told that the hole had dramatically decreased its value,
28:44down from a potential 50,000 pounds to a few thousand.
28:47So, before repurposing some old vase that's been lying around the house forever,
28:52go get an appraisal.
28:54Number 17. A 126-year-old statue of Dom Sebastião I
28:59And here we have another tragic case of a selfie ruining a beloved piece of art.
29:04A child-sized statue of Portuguese king Dom Sebastião I
29:08stood outside the Rocio Railway Station in Lisbon, Portugal.
29:11The statue lasted for 126 years before it literally fell to a selfie.
29:16A 24-year-old man climbed the facade outside the Rocio Station to take a picture with the statue.
29:22However, he accidentally knocked the statue over and it shattered to pieces upon contact with the ground.
29:28The man tried to run away, but he was apprehended by police
29:31and faced prosecution for destroying a century-old artifact.
29:35Number 16. The Star-Spangled Banner
29:38It was like a fireworks display. People who watched it were enthralled.
29:42At the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812,
29:46the British Navy bombarded American forces at Fort McHenry through the night.
29:50Detained on a British troop ship, American poet Francis Scott Key watched in dismay
29:55as the heavens seemed to rain down a sea of fire.
29:58But at dawn, an enormous American flag was raised defiantly over the fort,
30:03a moment that inspired him to pen the American National Anthem.
30:07This iconic flag came into the possession of one Georgiana Armistead Appleton,
30:12who cut off snippets as gifts before the remains were whisked away to safety by the Smithsonian Institution.
30:18It sort of freezes them for a moment, and that's a truly wonderful thing.
30:24Number 15. A Monet Painting
30:26Ever struggled to get art?
30:28Maybe Irish vandal Andrew Shannon felt frustrated about a Claude Monet painting
30:33hanging in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.
30:35Valued at 10 million euros, the impressionist work,
30:39Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat,
30:42depicts an idyllic scene on the Seine River.
30:44But it apparently enraged Shannon, who, in 2012, punched a hole right through the canvas.
30:50He initially told cops he was trying to, quote,
30:53get back at the state, but would claim in court that it was an accident,
30:57and that he stumbled due to a health condition.
31:00Witnesses claimed otherwise, and he served five years in the slammer.
31:04Thankfully, the painting was later restored, after 18 painstaking months of work.
31:10Number 14. Chilean Geoglyphs
31:13The Dakar Rally, the annual off-road race where affluent drivers care through untouched wilds.
31:19Before moving to South America in 2009, the rally took place in Africa,
31:24where it attracted criticism for its impact on locals and the environment.
31:28Archaeologists in Chile have also condemned the event.
31:31The route through the Atacama Desert damaged protected sites,
31:35including ancient geoglyphs, which are works of art that are carved into the ground.
31:40Some of these are well over a thousand years old.
31:42It doesn't seem to matter to these off-road enthusiasts,
31:45some of whom think nothing of driving across these priceless artifacts from another era.
31:51Number 13. The Nazca Lines
31:53The Nazca Lines are brilliant artistic designs made in the desert grounds of southern Peru.
31:58The designs were created between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D.,
32:02and range from geometric patterns to depictions of human, animal, and natural life.
32:07These can stretch over 1,000 feet in length,
32:10and can clearly be seen from the air and from nearby hilltops.
32:13However, many of the lines have been damaged in recent years by squatters,
32:17construction machinery,
32:18careless Greenpeace activists who walked over the site with sneakers,
32:22off-road vehicles,
32:23and a truck driver who accidentally drove over numerous lines.
32:26How long does it take for nature to lift again all that sand and expose again and create the patina?
32:35Hundreds of years?
32:37Number 12. King Tut's Beard
32:39Chalk this up to Tutankhamen's curse.
32:42Tutankhamen was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from 1332 to 1323 B.C.
32:47His tomb was finally discovered in 1922,
32:49and the mummy of Tutankhamen was uncovered three years later.
32:53While the chin was initially found broken off his death mask,
32:56it was permanently reattached in 1944,
32:59or so everyone thought.
33:00In 2014, it was accidentally broken off and hastily glued back on,
33:05a process that caused irreparable scratches to the beard.
33:08After people began to notice the botched glue job,
33:11the mask was professionally fixed,
33:13and eight people faced criminal charges for their negligence
33:17in repairing the priceless mask with superglue.
33:20Number 11. The Senator
33:21It's part of our history as a family.
33:26It was one of the oldest trees in the world,
33:29predating Jesus by 1500 years.
33:31This bald cypress towered 125 feet high in Big Tree Park, Florida,
33:37and was a landmark for Native Americans and early settlers.
33:40But in 2012, 26-year-old Sarah Barnes,
33:44who proclaimed herself a, quote,
33:46nature enthusiast on her modeling page,
33:48lit a fire to better see the methamphetamine she was about to smoke.
33:52Things got a little out of hand,
33:54and today, a charred stump of wood is all that remains.
33:59Number 10. A 5,000-year-old rock carving.
34:02Well, we suppose they had good intentions.
34:05The Norwegian island of Tru houses a 5,000-year-old rock carving depicting a man on skis.
34:11This carving is one of the world's earliest indications of skiing,
34:14and it inspired the symbols of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.
34:18However, it was ruined in 2016 when two teenagers carved over it
34:22in an attempt to make it appear brighter and clearer.
34:25The teenagers, not realizing what a serious infraction they'd committed,
34:28turned themselves in amidst the intense media frenzy.
34:30The two then faced criminal charges and prosecution under the country's Cultural Heritage Act.
34:36Number 9. Ancient Chinese Tombs.
34:39Construction crews strike again.
34:41In 2007, workers building an Ikea branch in Nanjing, China,
34:46destroyed 10 ancient tombs dating back almost 1,800 years.
34:50It was claimed that this was all a mistake and that the crews didn't know about the tombs.
34:56Okay, but in 2013, contractors working on a metro line in Guangzhou demolished imperial tombs,
35:03which had been clearly cordoned off by the Guangzhou Archaeology Research Center.
35:08Some of the tombs were 3,000 years old.
35:11The destruction of all these tombs is a huge loss for those seeking to better understand China's history.
35:17Number 8.
35:18A 5,000-year-old cave painting.
35:21Thousands of years ago, one of our ancestors drew this mysterious long-armed figure
35:26in Los Escolares Cave in southern Spain.
35:29Hidden away from modern eyes until its rediscovery in 1973,
35:33it withstood the ravages of time for millennia as civilizations rose and fell.
35:38But it couldn't survive the shoddy work of thieves,
35:40who in 2014 sheared away part of the artwork in an attempt to steal it.
35:45This is a huge blow, as the damage is irreparable.
35:49But it also points out another problem.
35:51Although the cave system housing the picture is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site,
35:56there's no practical way to protect it against such acts.
36:00Number 7.
36:01A Mayan Pyramid.
36:02Belize is rich with relics left by the Mayans,
36:06whose civilization flourished in Central America for centuries until beginning a serious decline
36:11after 950 A.D.
36:12But in 2013, the country lost one of these riches when construction crews used the stones of an
36:18ancient pyramid for road fill.
36:20The pyramid, called Namul, and built in 250 B.C., stood almost 60 feet tall,
36:27but was quickly broken down by the crew, the members of which were later charged and fined.
36:32Such destruction isn't uncommon in Belize,
36:34where Mayan mounds are tempting targets for construction workers.
36:38But this is an incredible, incredible destruction.
36:42Number 6.
36:43The El Paraiso Pyramid.
36:44This pyramid would sure make a great spot for a swimming pool.
36:47Well, maybe that's what property developers were thinking when they illegally bulldozed
36:51a 20-foot-tall, 4,000-year-old pyramid at El Paraiso, Peru.
36:56They then lit the remains on fire for good measure.
36:59The site is one of the oldest and largest archaeological sites in Peru.
37:03As a matter of fact, it predates the rise of the famous Incan Empire.
37:07Onlookers prevented them from destroying other pyramids,
37:10and the developers were hit with criminal charges.
37:13Each one of these pyramids is part of my life.
37:15Now we'll never know all the history in that pyramid.
37:19Number 5.
37:20A Neolithic Tomb.
37:22In 2015, workers in the Spanish town of Cristóbal de Thea
37:26accidentally filled in a 6,000-year-old tomb with concrete
37:30and topped it off with a picnic table.
37:32They thought the tomb's slabs were a stone bench that had fallen into disrepair,
37:36so they wanted to erect a fancy picnic table in its place.
37:39The town's mayor said that he wasn't aware of the site's historical significance,
37:42and the site wasn't marked or protected in any way.
37:45People better have some damn good picnics on that bench
37:48because it cost history a 6,000-year-old tomb to put it there.
37:52Number 4.
37:53Troy.
37:54Troy is an ancient city depicted in Homer's Iliad,
37:57said to be the site of the famous Trojan War.
38:00The historical city of Troy is located in modern-day Turkey
38:03and was partially excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s.
38:07However, Schliemann wasn't a great archaeologist,
38:10and he proceeded to blast away the walls and layers of Troy
38:13and carved massive trenches in the ground that remain to this day.
38:17As one scholar stated, Schliemann, quote,
38:20destroyed a phenomenal amount of material.
38:22And this is why inexperienced archaeologists
38:25are not allowed to excavate millennia-old cities.
38:28You violated my command.
38:30No, my lord.
38:31There was a mistake.
38:33Number 3.
38:34The Second Temple of Artemis.
38:36While the original Temple of Artemis was destroyed in a flood,
38:39it was rebuilt in a more extravagant manner around 550 BC.
38:43It stood nearly 400 feet long and 150 feet wide,
38:47contained 40-foot-tall columns,
38:49and was allegedly the first Greek temple to be made from marble.
38:53It was a notable attraction for almost 200 years,
38:56but it was burned to the ground in 356 BC
38:59by some snot-nosed punk named Herostratus,
39:02who simply wanted to be famous.
39:04He was subsequently tortured on the rack and executed,
39:06and his name was banned from being spoken or written
39:09with the intention of erasing him from history.
39:12It didn't work.
39:14Number 2.
39:15The Buddhas of Pamyon.
39:16The Buddhas of Pamyon were two enormous statues of Buddha
39:19that were carved out of a cliffside in Afghanistan.
39:22The statues were carved in the 6th century,
39:25and they were reportedly decorated with elaborate jewelry by the year 630.
39:29The statues persisted for over 1,000 years
39:32until they were destroyed by the Taliban in March of 2001.
39:35The statues were bombarded with anti-aircraft weaponry,
39:39dynamite, artillery, and mines
39:41before the Taliban repelled down the cliff
39:43and placed explosives inside the monuments.
39:45The commander of the Taliban, Muhammad Omar, stated that,
39:48It has given praise to Allah that we have destroyed them.
40:03Number 1.
40:04Mosques, Mausoleums, and More
40:06Since 2014,
40:08ISIS has destroyed numerous historical monuments and artifacts
40:11in their war against other faiths and denominations.
40:15These include religious sites,
40:16such as the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah in Mosul, Iraq,
40:19and the ancient temples of Bel and Balshamin in Palmyra, Syria.
40:23In Palmyra, they also vandalized a Roman theater
40:26and demolished a Tetrapylon monument.
40:29Sadly, it doesn't stop there.
40:31Their efforts to destroy the region's cultural heritage
40:34have also included bulldozing the historic Assyrian cities
40:37Nimrud and Nineveh in Iraq,
40:39which was at one point the largest city in the ancient world.
40:43Which of these historic losses do you think was the most tragic?
40:46Let us know in the comments.
40:49Let us know in the comments.
40:51Let us know in the comments.
40:51We got kind of a modify language.