Regarding the announced presentation of the Sarajevo Haggadah on Capitol Hill in Washington, the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina emphasizes that it was not formally involved in the organization of the event, nor was the museum requested for information or materials about this famous manuscript. The museum recalls its decades-long care and expertise in preserving the Haggadah, and expresses concern about the practice of bypassing the institution that owns the manuscript.
Presentation of the Sarajevo Haggadah in Washington
The statement of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina states: “We recently learned through the media that today, March 24, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on the occasion of marking the beginning of the holiday of Pesach, a presentation of the Sarajevo Haggadah will be organized, which will be attended by representatives of the US administration, Congress and Senate, religious communities from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the US, and the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the US, H.E. Sven Alkalaj, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konaković, and the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Bećirović. Accordingly, we believe that the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina is obliged to provide basic clarifications:
The museum is not involved in the organization
The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, apart from the media, has not been informed or in any other way, even formally, involved in the organization of the aforementioned presentation;
The organizers of the aforementioned presentation did not request from the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina to provide them with information, photographs or any produced material on the topic of the Sarajevo Haggadah, such as the facsimile edition of “Sarajevo Haggadah, History and Art” or, for example, the exhibition “Three Lives of the Sarajevo Haggadah”. Of course, we do not deny the right of political and religious representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina to promote individual items from our collections, as well as the ideas or meaning they carry, independently of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but we must point out the fact that this is a very “unusual” practice of bypassing the direct owner of the same. We express the above based on previous negative experiences in which we were faced with illegal printing and commercial use of parts or the entire manuscript of the Sarajevo Haggadah by several associations or publishers, which we have previously warned about unsuccessfully. We consider it inappropriate to leave its presentation in the hands of unknown persons, without consulting the staff of the Museum in whose possession the manuscript is located.
The Museum’s Long-Term Care and Achievements
Out of a total of 138 years of its existence, the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been the owner of the Sarajevo Haggadah for 132 years. For the same amount of time, the curators and experts of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been caring for, preserving and protecting one of the most famous manuscripts from the 14th century, and probably the most famous and valuable example of Jewish medieval art in general, every day, continuously and, above all, professionally and competently. In recent years, our institution has made great efforts to ensure that the preservation and promotion of the Sarajevo Haggadah is carried out at the highest museological and publishing standards: the space in which the original manuscript is kept and exhibited is equipped according to the highest world standards in terms of conservation and security, and it is possible to view it at certain times without a special ticket; the Sarajevo Haggadah was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World list; the exhibition “Three Lives of the Sarajevo Haggadah” was organized, which was successfully presented not only in the region, but also in European countries. We are particularly proud of the publication of the facsimile and accompanying study “Sarajevo Haggadah, History and Art”, which, in addition to the BiH languages, was also published in English and French. The listed successes were achieved despite the carelessness of all Bosnian and Herzegovinian politicians, not thanks to them.
Expectations from state representatives in Washington
However, we are fully confident that the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, as well as the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH, will use the aforementioned opportunity to familiarize representatives of the American administration with the reasons, as well as their personal and institutional, extremely successful efforts to resolve the issue of financing the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 30 years after the signing of the Dayton Agreement. We are equally certain that the representatives of the American administration will listen with interest, understanding and sympathy to the argumentation justifying the fact that the famous, “$700,000,000” Sarajevo Haggadah, known as “our Mona Lisa”, is still in a state institution that, together with its employees, has been on the brink of existence for decades and outside of any certain funding. If nothing else, we believe that they will at least be successful in continuing to support the “self-sustainability” of the museum, by encouraging a new wave of tourists who will come to see the manuscript and buy a facsimile, when they themselves cannot.”
