SEINE FLOODING LEADS TO LOUVRE PRECAUTIONARY CLOSING
Jun 02, 2016
By Michael Kramer
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Priceless art is at risk in Paris.
Extreme flooding has forced the Louvre Museum to shut down Friday – so artworks can be moved to higher floors – from areas that are threatened by rising water from the Seine river.
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The Louvre’s most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is staying put for now – safe on an upper floor.
The Seine has overflowed its banks in many places and the Paris police flood warning – is at it’s second highest level.
Another of the world’s great museums, the Musee d’Orsay – sits near the opposite bank of the Seine – and closed early Thursday as a precautionary measure.
Disastrous flooding in other parts of northern France, Germany and Austria have caused at least five deaths.
Rainfall in the month of May was two-and-a-half times the normal level.