The destruction of iconic images and monuments—iconoclasm—carried out today by extremists representing a wide range of political and religious views, makes many recoil in horror. This response, however, is in part derived from the fact that our Western cultures have themselves been fiercely iconoclastic. James Simpson will discuss the six classic phases of iconoclasm in European history and highlight the role that museums have played in protecting objects from major iconoclastic events. From this history, he will put current iconoclasm into perspective.