I see your point and I find it reasonable. In fact, a good way to see it's those sculptures are the touch of a human being and, destroying them, they're also destroying the essence of the human lives that created them. Something we'll never recover.

What scares me is how the Islamic State got to the conclusion they could attract more attention by destroying art than killing human lives. As if they'd have simply measured their acts and they'd think they could get a higher impact by destroying artifacts...