Humanity could be left without the world's greatest treasures due to climate change

Climate change could leave us without 'Mona Lisa'

Images like this could cease to exist as weather events become increasingly extreme. Floods, heat waves and hurricanes are a clear threat to humanity's masterpieces such as the 'Mona Lisa'.

Just over half a century ago, in 1966, the city of Florence received in two days a third of its average annual rainfall, which was a disaster for 14.000 works of art, 3 million books, 30 churches, museums and libraries, in addition to 20.100 people, one hundred of whom lost their lives. Will this be a frequent event in the next few years? It's possible.

What we do know for sure is what is already happening. This August the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, had to be closed for a day due to the heat wave that hit Europe. And it is that, if they had not done it, the paintings would have simply been ruined, since they need an environment of 23 degrees and a relative humidity of 55%, and the room was at more than 40ºC.

Hurricane Harvey endangered 65.000 paintings, sculptures and artifacts from the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Fortunately, "the entire collection is intact" according to museum director Gary Tinterow, but he's not at ease. So it is already constructing a new building that can withstand category five hurricanes.

The interior of the Prado Museum

The meteorological phenomena will surely be more and more intense as the planet warms, for this reason, Many museums are taking steps to protect their works, such as using waterproof packaging, testing evacuation practices, storing paintings at high levels and protecting the air conditioning system. Here in Spain, the Prado Museum (Madrid) seems to be more or less safe; However, if necessary, they will evacuate the works to warehouses within the same field or to another building, according to what they say.

Hopefully that is enough.


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