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A Berkeley institution is closing its doors, perhaps for good, unless the right new rental turns up sometime soon. 

The United Nations Association/UNICEF gift shop is poised to close June 17 after 35 years in Berkeley. 

“We won’t make our 36th anniversary Aug. 1 unless we get a new place,” said the center’s director, Kara Speltz. 

Last Friday the prices of non-UNICEF gifts were reduced 10 percent and that discount percentage will grow 5 percent daily until June 17 when it reaches 75 percent. 

The UNICEF merchandise cannot be reduced in price but the jewelry, Russian stacking dolls, small flags of nations around the world, cloth wallets, painted German clocks, books, and small wooden or ceramic sculptures are all dropping in price. 

Speltz said the inventory reflects the center’s aim to offer merchandise that is not typically available elsewhere. The merchandise comes from 60 countries around the world – the right way to go for a United Nations store. 

Some of the store’s best sellers, Speltz said, are illustrated books meant for children to learn words in foreign languages, which adults also seem to like. 

Many of the folk art objects were handcrafted in traditional styles of countries worldwide and purchased as part of “fair trade” agreements, but Speltz says she also picks up things from a twice-a-year San Francisco gift show. 

A passel of 32 hanging stuffed monkeys she purchased earlier this spring was down to only two remaining monkeys on Friday afternoon. 

The center pays $1,500 a month to rent the 750-square-foot store at Shattuck Avenue and Delaware Street; its managers and volunteers are hoping to find a smaller, more affordable venue. 

While the store carries a full line of UNICEF merchandise such as the popular cards, T-shirts and wreaths, it must return 90 percent of sales of UNICEF goods profits to the agency. 

Last year the center sold $50,000 worth of UNICEF products, and the director is proud of the whopping register receipts – but a 10 percent profit doesn’t pay the rent. 

The 350-member East Bay Chapter of the United Nations Association owns the nonprofit center and expects the sale of non-UNICEF gifts to pay the way. But the gifts are not making the rent, said Speltz. 

“It costs $200 a day just to open the door,” she said. 

If they could find a downtown location they would be in heaven, but they would need an angel to offer a rent they could afford. In the meantime they’re looking outside the downtown. 

The center has a sister store in Palo Alto, another university town, and the two UNICEF outlets are tied for No. 1 place in the pantheon of United Nations Association stores, a group that has dwindled to fewer than 10 stores from a field that once included about 25 nationwide. 

Plastic, colorful globes dangle from the ceiling and a map of the world on a wall facing a small table in the back of the store are apt choices for the international bent of the store. 

The table is for visitors who come to the store to use its library that is arranged on shelves on the rear wall. 

The library carries books and publications about the United Nations and it has “almost every periodical the UN publishes,” said Speltz. The library sees at least 12 people who use its services every month. 

“There’s no resource as up-to-date and valuable,” said Mary Lee Trampleasure, who directed the center for 15 years. 

“It doesn’t look like much, but people come in and always find what they want here.”