It's unlikely they'll "just let them rot away", but I'd imagine "document preservation" is far from the highest thing on Rome's list of financial priorities. So

It's unlikely they'll "just let them rot away", but I'd imagine "document preservation" is far from the highest thing on Rome's list of financial priorities. So if you want something new and exciting done, they need to find cash from somewhere - asking those interested in the documents seems a reasonable way to do that.