Heritage
Monumental Lies
Robert’s recent book Monumental Lies: Culture Wars and the Truth about the Past is proving a critical success. The book examines the politicisation of the historic environment and reminds us why material evidence matters so much. It has been a book of the year in the Financial Times, the Art Newspaper and elsewhere. Robert is undertaking a…
Target Heritage
From Mali to Bangladesh and beyond, ideology is making a target of cultural heritage.
Iconoclasm as genocide warning
Attacks on buildings conveying cultural identity can be a warning of incipient ethnic cleansing or genocide.
World Heritage Convention at 40
Is the world heritage convention having a midlife crisis? Published as: World Heritage at 40: success or mess? in THE ART NEWSPAPER Number 240, November 2012
Neues Museum, Berlin
David Chipperfield’s masterpiece used Bevan’s book, The Destruction of Memory as a guide to its critical reconstruction.
The Destruction of Memory
One of the ten best architecture books says The Independent. This analysis of attacks on architecture helped define a new field of study.
Common Ground
An essay on Islamophobia and the stand-off between heritage and the avant-garde commissioned for a critical reader accompanying the 2012 Venice Biennale.