As one of the curators explained, the existence and functioning of these national institutions uphold the idea of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign, undivided, multiethnic country. Its holdings bear witness to a resilient, heterogeneous culture that survived empires by adapting and including influences that came with long foreign administrations. That is precisely why they are not funded, why the state itself, by abject neglect, is continuing the destruction of Bosnian culture and learning that began in earnest in the war of 1992-1995. And to understand something as absurd as that, we have to understand that the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina is set up to work against its own unity, like a house divided against itself. In 1995, the Dayton Peace Accord, brokered by the Clinton administration, managed to end the war, but at a very high price for Bosnians: it created an ungovernable, dysfunctional division of the country into two administrative units, or “entities” as they are called in local political parlance: the Bosniak-Croat Federation (mostly Muslim/Bosniak and Catholic/Croat-governed) and the Srpska Republic (Orthodox/Serb-run) that are perpetually at odds with each other. Many politicians, particularly from Srpska Republic, are not interested in supporting anything on the federal level. Supporting the national institutions that bear witness to country’s cultural diversity and educate about complex history goes against the formula of their power, which relies on bombastic nationalist rhetoric and secessionist threats in public and crony networks in the shade. The other, Bosniak-Croat side, is not invested in saving the museums and libraries either, as it is much more politically expedient and much cheaper to support glamorous international events and festivals— Sarajevo is awash in them— that will largely take care of themselves with corporate endorsements. Meanwhile, centuries of artifacts from all current ethnic groups and their predecessors are being slowly destroyed: the National Museum, for example, has no heat, pipes freeze and burst, the interior is damp and moldy and the exterior is vandalized. What remains of the collection of the National and University Library after it was set ablaze by Serbian shelling on August 25, 1992 is housed in the damp former barracks of the Yugoslav National Army.

Stacks in the temporary quarters of the National and University Library of of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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