Warburg Library update

THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION: Warburg Institute: library saved from Nazis awaits its fate (Jack Grove). The fate of the library is still up in the air:

Four years after Warburg’s death, the collection of about 80,000 books, many rare Renaissance volumes, was moved to London as Nazism took hold in 1930s Germany. However, the University of London is now seeking to challenge the status of the deed of trust it signed in 1944 when accepting the collection.

That document promised to maintain and preserve the collection “in perpetuity” as “an independent unit” – a pledge that now appears onerous as the Warburg runs a reported £500,000 annual deficit.

Representatives for both the university and the Warburg Institute were due to appear in a court in London’s Rolls Building this week after efforts to negotiate a compromise over the past five years have failed.

Last week I noted an article about this in the New Yorker which turned out to be several years old. But this Times Higher article was published this month and indicates that the case has yet to be resolved. There is also a petition to Save the Warburg Institute!, brought to my attention by Timothy Michael Law on Facebook.