Spoils of war at Uppsala University Library
During Uppsala University Library's first century, large parts of the Library’s collections consisted of spoils of war seized by the Swedish Army. The King donated the books to Uppsala to strengthen the library at the country's leading university. The total number of spoils of war books in the Library’s collections is around 10,000–15,000. So today, when the Library houses around 6 million printed documents, they account for a small proportion of the total stock.
Spoils of war, a historical retrospective
Seizing cultural objects as spoils of war is nowadays banned. International agreements intended to protect cultural objects were formulated around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the past, however, it was legitimate and common practice. According to older international law victors had the right to seize spoils of war, provided it was taken under proper circumstances. Hugo Grotius' work De jure belli ac pacis (‘The Law of War and Peace’, 1625) is an important authority in this area.
Spoils of war can be found in Swedish libraries, museums, churches, manors, castles and palaces. Books, art and sacred objects were seized from other countries during war in the period when Swedish was a major power, from the early 17th to early 18th centuries.
How Uppsala University Library handles spoils of war
Everyone is welcome to study spoils of war books on site at Uppsala University Library. The Library works continuously on cataloguing the material and making it accessible, for instance by digitising books, documents and maps to make them accessible to everyone.
Conservation and providing access through cooperation
Uppsala University Library has a long tradition of cooperating with other libraries and institutions around the world to preserve material seized as spoils of war and make it accessible. Examples of cooperation from more recent times are as follows:
Return of spoils of war
A basic position adopted by European states is that spoils of war seized during the early modern period (1500–1789) should remain where it is. The museums, libraries and institutions that manage the material should work together across national and institutional boundaries to enable research on a common cultural heritage.
Demands for spoils of war to be returned are occasionally made by individual organisations and private individuals, but rarely at institutional or national level. Sweden’s position on the return of spoils of war is restrictive.
Read more
Literature on spoils of war in Uppsala University Library's collections
Ulf Göransson: Cultural heritage as spoils of war and developments in the law following Grotius.
