At least four cultural and historical landmarks were damaged in attacks na Iran, he confirmed Unesco.
The opulent Qajar-era Golestan Palace in Tehran was damaged, as were the 17th-century Chehel Sotun Palace and the country's oldest mosque, Masjed-e Jama, both in Isfahan.
Photo: APGolestan Palace
Damage has also been confirmed to buildings near Horamabad Valley, which includes five prehistoric caves and a rock shelter that provide evidence of human existence dating back to 63.000. years before the new era.
Chehel Sotun Palace
The Chehel Sotun Palace dates back to the Safavid period and was damaged after an Israeli airstrike hit the provincial administration building nearby on Monday, Iranian media reported and CNN reported.
The palace is located not far from Isfahan's governor's office, and reports suggest that the blast's shock wave damaged parts of the palace complex, known for its frescoes, reflecting pool and historic halls dating back to the 17th century.
In a statement following the damage to Tehran's Golestan Palace, UNESCO said the site was "damaged by debris and shockwaves following an airstrike" near Arg Square in the capital.
There are also reports of damage around Naqsh-e Jahan Square, a UNESCO-listed Safavid square that is home to monuments such as the Ali Kapu Palace and several historic mosques.
The Pentagon has not commented.
The affected landmarks are among nearly 30 Iranian sites designated as protected UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
UNESCO said it had provided all parties to the conflict with the geographic coordinates of the protected sites in advance so they could take all precautions to avoid damage and that it was "closely monitoring the cultural heritage situation" in Iran and across the region.
It is not clear whether the damage was caused by American or Israeli attacks, and the Pentagon has not commented on these allegations. The Israel Defense Forces said it was "not aware" of claims of damage to UNESCO sites.
Ukraine
Already after the first months of the war in Ukraine, shelling damaged the Kharkiv Art Museum as well as the Korolenko State Scientific Library and the Nikola Lysenko Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet, the Chernihiv Regional Art Museum, Mariupol Museum lenvironmental sciences, and in Odessa the Memorial Museum of the philosopher Hrihorii Skovorod, the Sumy Theological Seminary, the Holy Mountain Lavra of the Holy Assumption and the Vorontsov Palace.
Photo: APMuseum in Mariupol
At the beginning of the war, the media reported that the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine had no pre-prepared plans for the evacuation of works of art. "The Ministry could not physically relocate objects such as the Holy Assumption Lavra, the Grigory Skovoroda National Museum, the Vorontsov Palace in Odessa, or the Lisičany Multidisciplinary Gymnasium," the Ministry's response said.
Paintings by Maria Primachenko
One of the first landmarks to suffer in this war was the History Museum in the small town of Ivankiv, eighty kilometers northwest of Kyiv. It was already hit by a shell on February 26, 2022. Nothing else in the area was damaged,
The museum in Ivankiv housed traditional costumes, ceramics and other cultural artifacts from the Polesia region, weapons from World War II, and even a mammoth skeleton.
But the museum's most valuable exhibits were the canvas collection of Maria Primachenko, a representative of "folk primitivism" known for her colorful paintings inspired by folklore, fairy tale creatures, chicken feet and fantastic flowers with human eyes. Picasso described Primachenko's work as an artistic miracle, while others highlighted horrors in her paintings, such as Stalin's Great Famine, in which more than three million Ukrainians lost their lives.
Robberies
During the first two years of the war, countless looting of cultural treasures was reported. The whole world learned that a golden tiara with precious stones, one of the most valuable artifacts from the reign of Attila, the ruler of the Huns, from the 5th century, had disappeared from Melitopol. The workers of the local museum hid the tiara and hundreds of other valuables in a secret basement, but Russian soldiers found it after several weeks of searching.
Valuables from the burial mound of a Scythian king from the 4th century BC, which was on display in the Museum of Historical Treasures in Kyiv, also disappeared.
Figures
According to UNESCO data, by February of this year, i.e. in four years of war, 153 religious buildings (churches, monasteries), 270 historically or artistically significant buildings, 39 museums, 33 monuments, 19 libraries, 4 archaeological sites and one archive were damaged in Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, which records a wider range of cultural heritage than UNESCO, around 1.630 cultural heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed by the end of 2025. In addition, 2.437 cultural institutions and objects of culture (theaters, cultural centers, libraries, etc.), of which 498 were completely destroyed.
