Suspected Arson at Felix Nussbaum Museum

Nussbaum Museum, Osnabrück, Germany

A sad new development to contemplate at observances this Sunday of Yom Ha-Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day):

Agence France-Press reports that suspected arson has caused extensive damage to the wooden façade of the Felix Nussbaum Museum in Osnabrück, Germany, which opened in 1998 and was Daniel Libeskind's first completed building. The museum contains the world's largest collection of paintings and graphic art by Nussbaum, who was born in Osnabrück and died at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp.

According to AFP:

Investigators are treating the case as arson but said there was no indication it was politically motivated....Firefighters found a burning pile of fabric next to the building....Osnabrück has seen a rash of similar fires recently.

In describing the significance of this museum, Libeskind wrote:

The task of building a Museum to house the artistic remnants of Nussbaum's life raise issues which are not merely architectural but are indeed moral. I believe therefore, that the destruction of Jewish culture perpetuated by the Third Reich must not be dealt with solely in memorial terms. The remaining witnesses to the annihilation of European Jewry are now dying out. The paintings of Nussbaum are more than paintings. They are everliving documents which, placed in a new context of participation and a new witnessing, elevate the narration of history as art into the emblem of the very survival of the Jewish people and of European civilization.

No word from AFP about whether there was any damage to Nussbaum's "everliving documents."

UPDATE: Jessica Scaperotti of Studio Libeskind comments:

We were shocked and saddened to hear the news. Mr. Libeskind will of course do anything to assist in the process.