If we'll restore a painting of Pompeii, why won't we restore Pompeii itself? | Simon Jenkins

To watch the ruins at Pompeii slowly decay is heartbreaking. We must abandon the 'conserve as found' maxim and reconstruct

With exquisite timing, the Tate in London is staging a show of great disasters, by the Victorian artist, John Martin. The paintings depict Vesuvius erupting, Sodom in flames, Noah racing for his ark, Babylon falling, and the horsemen of the apocalypse charging everywhere, as if London were playing host not to the Olympics but to Armageddon. The centrepiece is Martin's...