The precious Sarajevo Haggadah will stay in Bosnia — at least for the foreseeable future — despite an offer from the Metropolitan Museum in New York to display it on long-term loan
Jakov Finci, the president of the Bosnian Jewish community, told JTA that
in a meeting this week, the Bosnian Commission for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage had decided that “now is not the time” to lend the 600-year-old manuscript to the Met. The decision comes despite the fact that Bosnia’s National Museum, which owns the haggadah and where it has been kept, closed down last year for lack of funds.
Finci added that a delegation from the Metropolitan Museum would be in Sarajevo later this month, but “he was ‘not optimistic’ that the cultural heritage commission would change its decision.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press quoted Ljiljana Sevo of the cultural heritage commission as saying that the Sarajevo Haggadah could not be sent to New York on loan because of the unresolved status of the national museum and financial difficulties.