Robert Bevan

Robert Bevan is the author of Monumental Lies: Culture Wars and the Truth about the Past (2022)

Connect

Fifty years after Hans Döllgast's death, conference explores his role in rebuilding post-war Germany

The architect rejected nationalistic solutions in favour of collaged restoration

Conflictcomment

Why cultural destruction is such a dangerous military tactic

A landmark report shows how attacks on heritage can cause “psychosocial, economic, and other types of harm”—but laws need to go further

Heritage destruction brings Putin one step closer to prosecution, according to landmark report

Blue Shield workers have been able to access and gather evidence in destroyed cultural buildings and heritage sites in Ukraine. What have they found?

Striking displays of unequal power: Venice Architecture Biennale review

The 2023 event focuses on marginalised voices for the first time, with more than half of participants from Africa or the African diaspora

Western arrogance on parade in new book about culture and conflict

Different methods of protecting heritage during times of war are explored with mixed success in this challenging read

Museumsreview

From cosy to creepy: new displays at Bletchley Park muddle Britain's honourable Nazi-fighting history with a contested present

The museum—set inside a Buckinghamshire country house—has opened its largest ever gallery, called the Intelligence Factory, this week

Reports say Putin is deliberately targeting Ukrainian heritage—but is that true?

Amid Russia’s savagery we must maintain a clear ethical stance when intervening to protect culture

The ugly pursuit of beauty: how traditional architecture has become a battleground for right-wing politicians

With the culture wars in full swing, reactionary ideas on city-making are again in the ascendant, argues architecture and heritage critic Robert Bevan

Mining company Rio Tinto apologises for destruction of 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site

Blasting of two ancient rock shelters at Juukan Gorge was authorised in 2013 by Western Australia state government

Turkey's Göbekli Tepe: is this the world’s first architecture?

Scholars say the organisation needed to build the 12,000-year-old temple may mark the beginnings of class society and patriarchy

Stockholm's revamped ArkDes centre champions design's role in public life

New exhibition and project space put spotlight on civic activism and emerging voices

Three to see: London

Monet takes on the city at the National Gallery and it is the final week of the once-in-a-lifetime Charles I show at the Royal Academy

Monet's urban obsession explored in major new London show

National Gallery exhibition, which includes Rouen cathedral paintings, reveals another side of French Impressionist

Yves Saint Laurent museum unveiled in Paris

Museum's Marrakech counterpart is due to open later this month

Attacks on culture can be crimes against humanity

Trial in The Hague of Islamic extremist reminds us that the destruction of built heritage and human life are often linked

Wonders and blunders: what makes a great museum?

Artists, architects and curators tell us about the spaces they love—and hate

Tate Modern extension: a towering achievement

Architecture critic Robert Bevan reviews Herzog & de Meuron's "literal tour de force"

‘Zaha Hadid transformed our ideas of what architecture could be’

The architect, who died in March, faced down her critics to leave a remarkable, if flawed, legacy

Commentarchive

Development, tourism and neglect endanger sites as much as conflict and natural disasters

Does Unesco have the power to stop the decline of crucial heritage sites?

Playing hardball with soft power on restitution claims

Western museums are feeling the pressure over restitution claims from China, Turkey and Cambodia

Interview: architect Jacques Herzog on Art Basel’s new hall

The co-founder of Herzog & de Meuron architects on remodelling Messe Basel and the end of Modernity

Heritage caught in the crossfire in wake of Arab Spring

From Macedonia to Mali, the culture of the Islamic world is in an ideological and territorial struggle

Cambodiaarchive

Demilitarised zone established to protect shelled temple on border between Cambodia and Thailand

Thai army cedes ground but future of Cambodian World Heritage site remains unresolved

Revictorianising Whistler

The artist presented as an eminent contemporary of Ruskin and Morris rather than a prefiguration of abstraction

Deacon exhibition at Lisson

Ian Hamilton Finlay’s exhibition at Victoria Miro complements ICA survey