Bosnia – 600-Year-Old Sarajevo Haggadah Will Not Be Shown At New York’s Metropolitan Museum

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina – A Bosnian museum has rejected an offer by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to exhibit one of its most prized relics, a 600-year-old Jewish manuscript that is not being displayed because of a lack of money.

Ljiljana Sevo of Bosnia’s National Monuments Preservation Commission said Wednesday that the Sarajevo Haggadah could not be loaned because of the unresolved status of its home, the Bosnian National Museum, which closed down last year over funding. The rejection puts pressure on the government to try to step in and save the museum.

The 125-year-old museum and others were left without funding by Bosnia’s 1995 peace agreement. The peace deal split the country into two parts linked by a weak central government and did not envision a ministry of culture.