Art and Disaster

By Michael Møller, Director General of United Nations Office at Geneva

The images of Paris underwater and the immediate action from the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay to close their doors to protect their world-class art collections make a clear connection between disaster risk reduction and heritage conservation. How often do we see the words ‘art’ and ‘disaster’ in the same sentence? Not often, despite the fact that they are interlaced.

The fact that a flood in Paris has triggered this alarm for museums highlights that in case of extreme weather events such as floods, but also droughts, it’s not only about protecting human lives, infrastructure and economic loss, it’s also about our cultural heritage.