How does a museum plan for a massive flood? The Louvre has had to face a potentially devastating flood this summer. Their decision to close to the public while staff prepared the collection for removal to higher levels was necessary.
New York Times, “Crowds Are Out, Crates Are In as Louvre Takes Flood Precautions,” b
Artworks were packed to be moved from the Louvre Museum’s storeroom to the exhibition halls, where they would be less vulnerable to rising flood waters. Credit Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images.
I never in a million years would of thought of something like this. It only goes to show that protecting artwork goes beyond protecting it from humans. Through our studies, we hear about protecting pieces from humans for multiple reasons: theft, vandalism, and during war times. I always think of Hitler’s action during World War II when it comes to protecting art. I never thought of a natural disaster such as flooding. According to the article 157,000 peices were moved to higher ground. 157,000 peices is amazing to me. I am thankful that we have the technology that we do today to be able to forecast the weather and prevent disasters such as this.
I was just in Paris in the middle of May, apparently only a week or two away from this flooding, and I had the good fortune to be able to visit the Louvre (for the second time) unimpeded. I was probably there for about four hours and yet, by the time we could walk no more, and left, we had barely covered the exhibits. The vastness of the Louvre, and it’s fortress-like appearance, as well as its level of security and precautions, often leads you to stray away from believing that something as simple as a flood could penetrate its walls, but I suppose when you harbor such a vast collection of art from various styles, time periods, and mediums, you must be painfully aware of all potential factors in the way.
It does not surprise me that the louvre was able to tag and box all of the art in a matter of days. Murphy’s law remains to true to everything. I am sure that the lourve has a terrorist plan and many more contingency plans due to how many special pieces are located within. I applaud the prompt and immediate action to take the steps needed to secure the pieces, for a few days closed is better then a lost work.
It is remarkable that they could secure and label all of the pieces of art in just a few days. This takes serious coordination but I am positive that the museum plans for these kinds of things and knows exactly what measures to take. This isn’t to say that this is the only museum with disaster preparation plans. All museums have a reputation to uphold and lost/damaged art work is lost money for the organization.
I was in Paris just this past June and was able to see the exterior of the Louvre. Seeing how massive the building is, knowing it has many layers blows my mind how they were so well prepared for the flooding. Obviously, everyone knows the Louvre as the museum with the Mona Lisa, but there are thousands of magnificent pieces in the there. This also shows how dedicated people are to preserving art which really is inspiring. People from around the world come to see the Louvre and what it holds inside. It would have devastating for the pieces to be damaged by a flood. It’s good to see how serious people take preserving art in the light of what ISIS and others are doing.
I never thought about how weather and natural disasters could impacts art. It’s great that the Louvre was so organized and prepared for the flooding. This made me wonder how many other museums have been affected by natural disasters. This also made me think question how moving the art work could have impacted it. It is risky to move such priceless pieces of work; I would have been terrified I would drop something.
It is certainly a shame for historical and priceless pieces that are unable to be saved to suffer damages from natural disasters. It is, however, inevitable that pieces will degrade by themselves or from outside forces, since nothing truly lasts forever even with various methods of preservation. As much as I would want for these impactful artworks to remain untouched, some will have to “disappear”. On the bright side, it is fortunate for the pieces that were saved from the flooding to keep being displayed for the public and continue to be shared for future generations.