National Museum of Bosnia and_Hercegovina in Sarajevo. Photo: wiki commons.

Bosnia’s National Museum, which houses one of the most famous and historic Haggadahs in the world, has closed its doors due to lack of funding.

The museum survived through two world wars and the siege of Sarajevo, but after a year of employees working with no salaries and sporadic grants offered to the institution by numerous branches of government, it was decided that the landmark should close.

One of the more famous historical artifacts at the museum is the Sarajevo Haggadah.  The book was brought to Bosnia by a Jewish family that fled Spain during the inquisition there and was saved from Nazi forces during World War II.

“Such a complex institution cannot function by improvisations. The authorities must provide the funds for employees’ salaries and functioning costs,” the BBC quoted National Museum manager Adnan Busuladzic as saying.

The division between Bosnia’s Serbian and Croatian communities has blocked efforts to the fund the museum and other cultural institutions since the bloody Bosnian War ended in 1995.