How the Sarajevo Haggadah's value mistakenly rose to $700 million

The value of the Sarajevo Haggadah has never been officially confirmed, nor has it been appraised, stated Jakob Finci, President of the Jewish Community of BiH, for the news agency Patria. Although he says the Sarajevo Haggadah is of priceless value, he recounted an interesting story of how the figure of 700 million KM appeared in the global public.

- With the approval of the BiH Government, in 1995, and following rumors that the Haggadah had been sold and that the money from its sale was being used to procure weapons and ammunition for the Bosnian army, the Government gave its consent for the Haggadah to be taken out of the National Bank's vault and brought to the Jewish Community so that the Seder for Passover could be conducted from the original Haggadah. Many journalists came. Among them was the correspondent for The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Cohen, the permanent correspondent from Sarajevo. He asked about the value of the Haggadah. We said it was priceless, but that the last figure mentioned was 7 million dollars. Americans write numbers by writing 7.00. And he wrote it that way. He sent that report by fax to New York. Then The New York Times published the next day that the famous Sarajevo Haggadah, worth 700 million dollars, had been shown in Sarajevo - Finci explained.

He states that it was very difficult to deny it at the time, and what The New York Times publishes is the "holy word".

- As much as we are local patriots, this is a bit too much, Finci told NAP.

Finci also explained the amount of 7 million dollars, which the management of the National Museum in Sarajevo requested for the Haggadah in 1991. It was about the following.

- In 1991, the Spanish government was preparing an exhibition to mark the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of Jews from Spain and wanted to exhibit the Sarajevo Haggadah in Madrid. At that time, the management of the National Museum requested insurance in the amount of 7 million dollars in case something happened. So, that was an approximate price - Finci stated.

It is interesting that from 1995 until today, this figure of 700 million dollars for the Haggadah's value has not been corrected, which is confirmed by a letter from the Mission of the United States of America to BiH and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sent last week to the BiH authorities regarding activities to open the National Museum of BiH, which has been closed to the public since October 2012.

Although there is still no official information about the opening of this Museum, Finci believes that the Haggadah could also be exhibited in the renovated Sarajevo City Hall.

- If the National Museum of BiH is closed and if we cannot agree with the director to open it, why don't we exhibit the Haggadah in the City Hall when we open it? It would be a much greater shame if ten, twenty, fifty thousand tourists came to Sarajevo and could not see Gavrilo Princip, the war in Sarajevo, but could see the Sarajevo Haggadah, but now they can't because someone won't give the key. It's better to exhibit it at least so it can be seen. We regret that such a work of world culture is kept hidden - Finci concluded.