Protect artworks from climate change. In an era in which the certainty of an increasingly critical climate has become a reality, where the risk of more frequent and more intense flooding forces all coastal realities to deal with adaptation and mitigation plans, also artworks are at risk.
In 2019, Venice experienced an exceptional tidal wave that brought the city and its lagoon to its knees, and many cultural institutions, along with the works they have preserved. The Louvre is certainly not located in a coastal area, but it is still located in a risk area, in low ground along the banks of the River Seine for which a probable increase in flooding of 40% is expected, due to the change climatic.
In 2016, the floods in Paris were so severe that the museum was threatened, triggering an emergency operation - around the clock - to wrap, pack and transport thousands of works of art from its storage to a higher level. high. About 250,000 works are currently stored in 68 different locations, both inside the Louvre building - mainly in flood-prone areas - and elsewhere in temporary storage spaces awaiting a permanent solution.
After discarding the idea of building a solution in Paris, which is too expensive and impractical, the French museum identified it in the town of Liévin, near Lens - where the Louvre-Lens museum is already located.
