It is self-evident that even among those of us who are not religious, there is an instinct towards the numinous and the sacred. When objects with these values are desecrated and profaned, it evokes great anger and anguish.

Human history is rife with such examples – the loss of the Great Library of Alexandria, a famed repository of ancient wisdom; the ransacking and destruction of the Summer Palace in Beijing, the pinnacle of Chinese Imperial architecture; synagogues in Europe used as stables (or worse) by the Nazis and communists in turn; and the wanton bombing of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan,...