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The Louvre PA Wire/PA Images

How to save artworks in Iraq and Syria? Put them in the Louvre

French president Francois Hollande says it could help save a lot of artworks.

FRENCH PRESIDENT FRANCOIS Hollande has said the Louvre could house threatened treasures from Iraq, Syria and other war-torn countries at a secure site in northern France.

The precious items could be placed in safe keeping at a conservation facility due to open in 2019 in Lievin, 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Paris, he said.

“The prime mission of the Lievin site will be to house the Louvre Museum’s stored collection,” Hollande said at a ceremony to unveil a plaque marking the site.

But, Hollande said, it will have “another role, sadly linked to the events, dramas and tragedies which may unfold in the world, wherever works of art are in danger because terrorists, because barbarians have decided to destroy them… (especially) in Syria and Iraq.”

Hollande said France will make the proposal at a December conference in Abu Dhabi on endangered heritage. Representatives from around 40 countries are expected to take part.

“We are going to suggest that the Lievin conservation site is where these works can be protected,” Hollande said.

The Abu Dhabi conference will also launch a fund, suggested by Hollande in September, which will aim to gather €91 million to help save endangered art.

The Louvre

The Louvre — the world’s most-frequented museum, with 8.6 million visitors in 2015 — has a vast collection of paintings, sculptures, Egyptian mummies and other treasures lying in its basement out of public view.

The Lievin site, located near a satellite Louvre museum at Lens, has been in the works since 2013.

The €60-million site will be both a storage site and facility to study the Louvre’s collection.

The need for Lievin was highlighted in June this year when rising floodwaters in Paris prompted the Louvre to evacuate artworks from its basement deemed at possible risk.

- AFP, 2016

Read: Iraqi forces move to cut off Islamic State militant supply lanes

FactCheck: Was Enda Kenny right about Charlie Flanagan and the Russian ambassador? 

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    Mute divide by zero
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    Oct 18th 2011, 2:00 PM

    Excellent! The Ark of the Covenant is exactly what we need to show other economies who’s boss….just remember to shut your eyes guys (not you Bertie, Charlie, and Biffo)

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    Mute Brian
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    Oct 18th 2011, 3:03 PM

    Love it!

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    Mute Keith Colton
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    Oct 18th 2011, 3:27 PM

    Who red thumbed this?! Genius idea, although I think it’s already in Hangar 18…

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    Mute Brian Walsh
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    Oct 18th 2011, 3:03 PM

    Actually at the turn of the century, a group of wealthy Americans began excavating at Tara believing that the Ark of the Covenant was buried there. There is still a myth that it is buried somewhere in Ireland having been brought here by Cesair, granddaughter of Noah (yup, the flood guy).
    As long as they do no harm, knock yourselves out. Its amazing that for such an ancient building so little of it is known, although to be fair professor Kelly pulled it apart and gave us the Newgrange we have now, some agree some don’t. That Newgrange itself is hardly known outside Ireland may be a blessing, everyone has heard of the Pyramids, Stonehenge, the Acropolis etc but ask an American or Englishman have they ever heard of Newgrange, sad, I’d love to see it getting recognition but then could it handle 3,4,5 times the tourist numbers? Who knows?

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    Mute Ken Mitchell
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    Oct 19th 2011, 8:33 AM

    it wasn’t wealthy americans, it was a religious sect called the “british Israelites”. Supposedly james joyce went up to tara to try and stop them and he was shot at by the local farmer! I prosed a second chamber in newgrange a few years ago to a historian there and I was poo pooed. At the back of the passage tomb there is what looks like to me a second entrance stone. Other passage tombs in the area have two passages so its entirely possible.

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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Oct 18th 2011, 6:42 PM

    Rumour has it that Haughey spent a lot of time there during the works-probably will turn out to be a cave filled with Charvet shirts (size small, with a large neck), fine brandies, and Terry Keane’s smalls.

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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Oct 18th 2011, 2:20 PM

    The title of the article was about Newgrange.
    It diverted to sites thousands of years more recent in the Middle East.

    No use comparing the Wright Brothers plane to an F16 fighter.

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    Mute Brian
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    Oct 18th 2011, 4:30 PM

    Sounds interesting.

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    Mute stephen corrigan
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    Oct 18th 2011, 4:49 PM

    Was it not teconstructed……ie they would know whats in there!

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    Mute Seamus Foskin
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    Mar 12th 2013, 12:34 AM

    is it not kinda obvious that there has to be more rooms at new grange, a big round building with only one passage in the middle. there has to be something more up there

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    Mute Kevin Quinn
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    Jan 22nd 2012, 2:10 AM

    They found the Ark of the Covenant where Moses placed the 10 Commandments, in a cave under Golgotha.

    http://arkofthecovenant2.blogspot.com/

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