Artist donates almost 2,000 books to Mosul library
Updated: 25/01/2021, 2:12 pm
The Library Of Exile was designed by artist and author Edmund de Waal (PA)
Artist Edmund de Waal is donating almost 2,000 books from his Library Of Exile to Iraq to help rebuild a collection almost completely destroyed by so-called Islamic State.
The University of Mosul’s library once housed more than a million books, according to Book Aid International, including rare manuscripts and works from over the centuries.
Its library was targeted by IS in 2015, after their occupation of Mosul.
Artist and author Edmund de Waal (Fulvio Orsenigo/PA)
Books were burned across Mosul in what Unesco called “one of the most devastating acts of destruction of library collections in human history”.