Behind Blue Eyes

Jan Beran

Retrospective Exhibition

1993-2008

Sarajevo Haggadah

One of Europe's most important Jewish relics has gone on public display in the National Museum in Sarajevo.

The journey of our Haggadah begins in 14th century Barcelona when it is presented as a wedding gift to a young couple. Within its calfskin pages are wonderfully handwritten texts and exquisite pictures, each delicately crafted in gold and copper and painted in vivid colors. It tells the story of the beginning of the universe to the death of Moses The Haggadah was owned by the Cohen family who, because of dire financial straits, sold it to the city of Sarajevo's newly founded National Museum in 1888. It was then sent to the National Museum in Vienna for scholarly analysis and was only returned to the Sarajevo Museum at the end of World War One. Subsequently, it became known as The Sarajevo Haggadah, famous amongst scholars and collectors of rare manuscripts.

But the survival story of the Sarajevo Haggadah didn't stop there. Sought by the Nazis during their occupation of Sarajevo during World War Two, it was spirited away and hidden, some say, under the floorboards of a mosque in a mountain village. After the city's liberation, it was returned to the Museum.

During the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992-1995, the Sarajevo Haggadah was rescued, this time by a Muslim museum employee just days before the library of the National Museum was bombed. Mystery once more surrounds its wartime idling place. Safe again, the document stands as a testimony to the courage and survival of people from all faiths.

“Tonight the odyssey of the Sarajevo Haggadah has come to an end. It is home. It is safe. It has witnessed the enduring courage, determination and triumph of the human spirit in the face of evil. Surrounded in this beautiful room by other works of spiritual beauty it remains the symbol of hope, of tolerance. A symbol of Sarajevo that has endured”

Jacques Paul Klein
Special Representative UN Secretary-General

We are offering limited edition reprints for sale.