A work of art has many lives

Mr de Montebello will unlock the extraordinary backstories of some of the world's most famous works of art." - Works of art elicit powerful, and remarkably contrasting, responses. On one hand, major shows at some of the world's top museums attract huge numbers of visitors keen to see artworks that have become iconic in our imagination. When, for example, items from China's Museum of the Terracotta Army were shipped across the world to the British Museum, more than 850,000 people came to see them. On the other hand, works of art known to be rare and precious, and revered by the local communities they belong to, continue to be singled out for destruction. Earlier this year Islamist militia in northern Mali smashed some of the greatest treasures of Timbuktu. It's all about context and symbolism: the 120 Chinese figures were exhibited to art-loving audiences in a hushed atmosphere of dim lights in a museum devoted to safeguarding treasures from around the world; the tombs at Timbuktu's famous 14^th-century mosque were smashed by the rebels as idolatrous and abhorrent to their fundamentalist beliefs.