Two of the world's most famous museums closed their doors to the public Friday as rising floodwaters threaten the irreplaceable works of art inside.
Both the Louvre Museum and Musée d'Orsay are situated along Paris' famed Seine River, which has reportedly risen to its highest level in decades amid downpours. Thousands have been forced to flee their homes, and more than a dozen have been killed in the flooding across Europe, the BBC reports.
Staff at the Louvre are scrambling to move art to protected areas in case the flooding gets worse. Photos posted to Twitter show sculptures and other antiquities packed into boxes, and galleries filled with empty glass cases. An estimated 150,000 pieces are at risk, according to The New York Times.
Today due to the level of the river #Seine, the Louvre is closed to ensure the protection of the works.
— Musée du Louvre (@MuseeLouvre) June 3, 2016
#CrueParis pic.twitter.com/33faZtpRbU
"For the museums, even if, fortunately, there isn't any flooding of storerooms as of today, there is an automatic process…to move works in the deepest storerooms higher," Bruno Julliard, Paris' deputy mayor, told France Inter radio, according to NBC News.
The flooding was expected to peak Friday, with the river projected to rise as high as 21 feet, The Times reports. Already, the river is at its highest level since the 1980s.
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