During a severe storm Friday evening, water leaked into the building?s electrical conduits and onto the priceless books ? not on the building?s fourth and uppermost floor, but on the third floor, where the rare books are kept, said Erzsébet Szőkefalvi-Nagy, the library?s director. With a complete restoration, some of the books ?might be saved?, she said.
After discovering the leak, library staff immediately started laying the pages of the damaged volumes between sheets of newspaper in order to prevent them from coming apart or their pages from being fused together until the restorer could begin his work. In order to save the books, it was necessary to take them apart, thereby reducing their value.
Among the damaged books were two of the most valuable in the museum?s collection: the Nádasdy Mausoleum, a collection of copper etchings of Hungary?s nobility from the nation?s founding until 1660, and Bonfini?s History of Hungary.
If the damage wasn?t enough on the third floor, drainage pipes in the basement burst, soaking storage stacks there, Szőkefalvi-Nagy said. The library, she added, would be unable to cover the damages from its own resources.
Source: Múlt-kor/Hungarian Press Agency (MTI)
