A unique research library threatened by oeconimic issues

Warburg Institute, Saved From Nazis, Faces Bureaucratic Threat

A great cultural foundation that was saved from the Nazis is now under threat from a different, more insidious menace: the bureaucratic policies of modern British higher education.

The Warburg Institute at London University is renowned throughout the scholarly world for its remarkable library, founded over a century ago. Yet today its existence as an independent entity is in doubt, and may be decided in court.

The story is a long and sad one. “Everybody has a feeling of disbelief that we have got to this point,” the director of the Warburg, Charles Hope, said in an interview. “The university has said that it wishes to change the Trust Deed, according to which the Warburg was originally handed over to the University of London in 1944, and is talking to its lawyers -- and we are talking to our lawyers.”

Like its founder Aby Warburg, I believe that art (and literature) must be understood from the cultural context from which it hales. He, and later the Institute, developed a wonderful library supporting that study, and managed to save it from seizure by the Nazis (as it was considered a Jewish entity). Now the University of London is trying to amend the original trust deed so that the university does not have to retain the library as an independent entity, as a cost-saving measure. The concern is that the library, if merged into the system, will largely become a book depository rather than the open-stack model that it is at present. I'm not familiar enough with the inner workings of the Institute or the University of London to judge the merit of this argument, but it sounds like a fascinating collection. I hope that something can be worked out so that it can continue without destroying its essence. It is incredibly important in the research of mediaeval and Renaissance studies, and I'd hate to see it character changed.