The Group of Seven committed on Friday to pursuing the creation of a U.N. peacekeeping force to protect World Heritage sites from destruction in conflict and combating the trafficking of plundered treasures.
Destroying antiquities at heritage sites like the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and the shrines of Timbuktu in Mali has increasingly become a tactic of war for groups like Islamic State, both to feed propaganda and profit from smuggling, the United Nations says.
The G-7 nations — Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Britain, the United States and Italy — signed an accord in the Italian city of Florence, cradle of the Renaissance, to strengthen international collaboration to protect cultural heritage.