Modern Iconoclasm

In 2001, the Taliban dynamited the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan — 1,500-year-old statues carved into a cliff face. In 2015, ISIS sledgehammered Assyrian artifacts in the Mosul Museum. Both acts were filmed and distributed as propaganda, turning destruction into a media event for global audiences.

Why film it? In the age of cameras, a smashed statue travels further than a finished one. Wrecking a famous artwork is cheap, instant, and impossible to ignore — which is exactly why extremist groups stage it for the lens. The spectacle, not the rubble, is the point.