The Louvre, one of the greatest art museums in the world—home to the Mona Lisa—has an uneasy relationship with its neighbor, the River Seine. In 2016, the Louvre’s curators rushed to relocate priceless artworks after the Seine, which flows through Paris, breached its banks in a flood. That’s far from the only time floodwaters exacerbated by climate change have threatened the museum. It happened again, for example, in 2018.
But the Louvre also depends on the Seine. For the fickle river helps the museum maintain cool temperatures and humidity levels conducive to the long-term preservation of centuries-old art.