Britain sets up 'Indiana Jones' teams to rescue relics from the ISIS barbarians threatening to destroy them forever

Chancellor George Osborne is bankrolling a ‘cultural protection fund’ to pay for experts to restore treasures destroyed by fanatics.

Curators from the UK will link up with counterparts in Iraq, Syria and Libya to identify items which could be rescued. They will also make digital recordings of ancient sites, allowing them to be restored or, if beyond repair, allow future generations to view their lost heritage.

The initiative is being driven by Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, who will host a summit on the issue later this summer, The Daily Mail Report said.

Ministers will also introduce legislation into the Commons to ratify an international treaty which aims to ‘spare cultural heritage from the consequences of armed conflicts’.

IS has bulldozed ancient mosques and looted artefacts including treasures dating back to King Solomon, ancient Persia and Greco-Roman times, on the grounds they ‘promote idolatry’.

These include the demolition of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, built in the Ninth Century BC, the 12th Century Khudr Mosque in central Mosul and the 13th Century shrine of Imam Awn al-Din in Mosul. In March, fighters also started to demolish shrines near Tripoli, Libya.

Last month, to the world’s horror, IS overran the Syrian town of Palmyra, which contains Roman ruins. A 1,900-year-old ‘God Lion’ statue is already said to have been obliterated. Five out of Syria’s six Unesco World Heritage sites have suffered ‘massive destruction’.

Last night, Whitehall sources said the new fund would ‘safeguard the heritage of countries affected by conflict or at risk of coming under attack for ideological reasons’. The budget for the fund has yet to be decided.

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said he was working with colleagues in Iraq to establish an Emergency Heritage Management programme to ‘establish a specialist corps of rescue archaeologists in Iraq’.

Cultural expert Stephen Bayley said: ‘Civilisations are remembered by their artefacts. What a fine rebuttal of nihilism to reconstruct what it has destroyed.’ In the Indiana Jones films, Harrison Ford portrays an archeologist trying to stop the Nazis from seizing the Ark of the Covenant.

Legislation to ratify the Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, adopted in 1954, will be brought forward ‘at the first opportunity’.

Mr Whittingdale said: ‘While the UK’s priority will continue to be the human cost of these conflicts, I am in no doubt we must also do what we can to prevent any further cultural destruction. The loss of a country’s heritage threatens its very identity.’