The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasunhas tried to distance itself from responsibility for the floods suffered last week in the National Library of Spain (BNE), attributing to the previous team the damage that has been causing very dangerous leaks for the bibliographic heritage for at least two years. «When we arrived at the Ministry of Culture we found a whole series of damages on the roof. We have been acting quickly from the beginning. We have already invested more than two million euros in different actions,” defended the head of Culture, who announced a “study to see if the scope of the actions that have to be carried out has to be broader.”
Sumar’s spokesperson also spoke in this way before journalists at the National Library itself, where he went to present the ‘Spain Country Guest of Honor’ program at the Guadalajara Book Fair 2024. «We have an action protocol immediately, in the event that there are leaks, to also protect the funds, which is what we have done,” added Urtasun. According to first estimates, on this occasion around one hundred specimens of the modern collection have been damaged. «We are going to prepare a study to also see the extent of the damage and to see if it is necessary to go beyond the actions that are being carried out at the moment. When leaks occurred, action was taken immediately, quickly. I want to thank the Infrastructure Management and the staff of the National Library who acted immediately and there has been no significant damage to any funds. “We are acting.”
Urtasun added that as a minister he is “aware” of the problem: “I am absolutely responsible for the concern that this issue has raised regarding the leaks from the National Library and I want to give a message of calm, we are acting. We are acting from the first minute we arrive and we are seeing if we have to expand the scope of the actions. Since we arrived, I insist, we found a series of damages on the roof resulting from previous storms and we have been taking action since then.
The heavy downpour that fell on Wednesday in Madrid caused significant leaks in the BNE, at the Recoletos headquarters. The water began to fall on Wednesday morning on the 12th floor of the general warehouse, the highest in the building. As the hours passed, the water leaked to the 10th floor. Although there is no official count, it is estimated that between fifty and one hundred books may have been damaged. Oscar Arroyodirector of the BNE, assured that all the affected specimens are from the modern background and that they can be saved without problem: «Of everything that can happen climatologically, water damage is almost the least of it. There are times when water is not an element that destroys, it consolidates the fibers. […] “We have removed the books from that part of the warehouse and they are now in the care of the conservation department.”
The problem has been going on for a long time, and although it seemed to have been solved, the leaks do not stop reappearing. In December 2023, the Ministry of Culture approved emergency works worth almost two million euros to repair the waterproofing of the roofs of the National Library, among other things. The interventions began in January, just four months after the then director of the institution, Ana Santosrequested it. With the DANA of September 2023, all alerts had been activated. Then around a thousand documents from the Department of Music and Audiovisuals were damaged due to leaks in eight different rooms at the two BNE headquarters (Recoletos and Alcalá de Henares). Last August, another downpour caused flooding in the María Moliner reading room, affecting the copies kept there. «August was worse, indeed. The company removed the joints and it rained, but it is now fixed,” explains Óscar Arroyo.
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