Paris is flooding! And 250,000 pieces of art could be at risk, as curators from the Louvre have been rushing to transfer the works from storage areas to higher ground. Parisian authorities have now closed the entire Louvre museum itself, the national library, the Orsay museum, and the Grand Palais.
“We evaluate the situation for all the (cultural) buildings nearly hour-by-hour,” said Culture Minister Audrey Azouley, said in a press conference outside the Louvre. “We don’t know yet the evolution of the level of the Seine River in Paris.”
Curators have never had to take such precautions, at least since its reopening in 1993, but weather conditions (totally not global warming) are highly unusual. Parts of Europe have endured nearly a week of heavy rain, which has already resulted in 15 dead and others missing. The Seine in particular has been at its highest level in almost 35 years, but it was expected to peak later in the day. Now officials say the flooding could take weeks to clear out.
Uh, well, at least for today you can say that your messy basement was modeled after the Louvre.
See the raw flood footage below: