Books gift opens new page on life in Bosnia

As a contribution to the international effort to renew cultural life in Bosnia, leading contemporary artists yesterday donated some of their favourite art books to the new Museum of Contemporary Arts under construction in Sarajevo. The old museum, and nearly all its substantial library, was destroyed during the war years in the former Yugoslavia.

Among the roll-call of leading artists handing in their books, which later this month will be taken by truck first to Lubljana and then Sarajevo, were John Hoyland, Richard Wentworth, Richard Wilson, recent Turner Prize nominee, Gary Hume, Richard Deacon, Tracy Emin and Briget Riley. Thousand of books have so far been collected in the push, organised by David Elliot of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford.

Leading contemporary artists from all over the world have also donated some of their works to be on permanent show at the new Sarajevo gallery.