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Why did Christianity lead to the destruction or disappearance of many Polynesian artworks?

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dilly bag; Aboriginal Australian art, Northern Territory, Australia — Oceanic art and architecture An Aboriginal Australian decorating a tightly woven dilly bag with white, yellow, and ochre (red) paints, Northern Territory, Australia, 1948.

The rapid adoption of Christianity across Polynesia significantly impacted the region's artistic heritage. As missionaries arrived in the late 18th century and began to suppress traditional cultures, many indigenous religious and social practices were discouraged or prohibited.12

This religious shift led to the widespread obsolescence and intentional destruction of many types of traditional objects, as they were often deeply intertwined with the belief systems that missionaries sought to replace. Consequently, much of what we know about the scale and creativity of early Polynesian art—which was often more dynamic than surviving examples suggest—must be reconstructed through the records, writings, and drawings of early explorers.1

Beyond the direct influence of missionaries, the loss of traditional art was also accelerated by the era of European contact, during which many items were traded for foreign goods such as firearms, iron tools, and liquor. The combination of these cultural pressures and the perishability of materials like wood and bark cloth resulted in the disappearance of a vast portion of traditional Polynesian artistic production.3