Flood shuts Paris Musee d'Orsay until Tuesday

Published: 03 Jun 2016 - 03:05 pm | Last Updated: 14 Nov 2021 - 09:33 am

Tourists stand in front of the closed doors of the Orsay museum on June 3, 2016 in Paris, after the rain-swollen River Seine reached its highest level in three decades. Paris' world-famous Louvre and Musee d'Orsay museums shut today to rush valuable artworks out of their basements, as the rain-swollen River Seine reached its highest level in three decades. Parisians were urged to avoid the banks of the river which was expected to reach a peak of six metres (19 feet), while deadly floods continued to wreak havoc elsewhere in France and Germany. AFP / JOEL SAGET

Paris: The world-famous Musee d'Orsay in Paris will be closed until Tuesday due to the flooding of the Seine river, it announced on Friday.

The museum, which houses a world-renowned collection of 19th and early 20th century art, was shut on Thursday evening as concerns grew about the rising water levels.

Sitting alongside the river in a renovated train station, the museum is one of the highlights of Paris, welcoming some 3.4 million visitors last year.

The most-visited tourist spot in the city, the Louvre museum, which attracts some nine million visitors per year, was also closed on Friday to allow staff to move artworks stored in its underground vaults to higher floors.

Managers were set to decide later in the day when it would re-open.

The Museum of Decorative Arts, next door to the Louvre, remained open but also took measures to protect items stored in its basements.

AFP