The Guardian view on the University of London and the Warburg Institute

The University of London is looking for a legal ruling on the deed that gave it one of its great cultural treasure houses

- Editorial
- The Guardian, Sunday 10 August 2014 14.33 EDT
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A unique cultural treasure is under threat in London, from the university that was trusted to preserve it. The library of the Warburg Institute was gathered by the philanthropist Aby Warburg in the early part of the 20th century and rescued from the Nazis when they came to power. In 1944 it was transferred to the University of London by a one-page deed. It was a wartime transaction: brisk, trusting, and light on paperwork. The university undertook to “maintain and preserve the library in perpetuity” in a suitable building in Bloomsbury, and to keep it “adequately equipped and staffed as an independent unit”.

This worked well for decades. The Warburg Institute flourished and grew in a purpose-built home in central London, expanding from 80,000 books to 350,000. The library became an unrivalled resource for scholars of the visual arts, and open, in theory, to all of them. Because it had been preserved from the ravages of fashion, the arrangement of its treasures remained unconstrained by modern taxonomies and followed more natural patterns of thought. To move among the shelves is to move along the natural associations of a cultured mind.

But the university is now picking and poking at the wonderful gift it was given, most recently by trying to clarify in court the terms of the deed, which have not presented any difficulties of understanding up till now. The trouble is of course financial. Changes to the university system have deprived the central University of London of much of its former power and wealth. What’s left are the buildings in central London, and these would certainly be more valuable if they were not in the grip of scholars and art historians.

The funding crisis in higher education has been a grim siege that has continued for years and years. Expedients once unthinkable are now considered as matters of fact. In a city under siege the animals in the zoo stop being exotic or beautiful, and turn into awkwardly ambulant steaks. The Warburg has had its service charges raised by the university to the point where it faces financial extinction.

The aim appears to be the reduction of the library to the books that it contains, which would then be merged into the rest of the university’s system. The university denies that this is under consideration, or ever has been, but it is difficult to understand why else it has decided that the wartime deed needs to be tested in court. If it is happy to follow the plain directions of the deed, why ask for another interpretation?

The best solution would be for the Warburg Institute to stay as it is and where it is. But if the University of London cannot fulfil its trust, it would be best for the library to return to Germany.