NEW YORK (AFP) – New York’s famed Metropolitan Museum of Art on Thursday strongly condemned the “catastrophic” destruction of ancient artifacts by extremists in Iraq’s second city of Mosul.

Upon learning of the destruction of artifacts at the Mosul Museum by Islamic State jihadists, Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, condemned the act as “wanton brutality.”

Campbell said in a statement: “Speaking with great sadness on behalf of the Metropolitan, a museum whose collection proudly protects and displays the arts of ancient and Islamic Mesopotamia, we strongly condemn this act of catastrophic destruction to one of the most important museums in the Middle East. The Mosul Museum’s collection covers the entire range of civilization in the region, with outstanding sculptures from royal cities such as Nimrud, Nineveh, and Hatra in northern Iraq. This mindless attack on great art, on history, and on human understanding constitutes a tragic assault not only on the Mosul Museum, but on our universal commitment to use art to unite people and promote human understanding. Such wanton brutality must stop, before all vestiges of the ancient world are obliterated.”

Militants from the Islamic State group knocked statues off their plinths and smashed them to pieces with sledgehammers at a museum in Mosul, all shown on a video released by fighters.

In another scene, a jackhammer is used to deface a large Assyrian winged bull at an archeological site in the city which the Sunni extremist group captured last summer.

Experts say the items include many pieces from the Assyrian and Parthian eras dating back several centuries B.C.