The flooding in Venice has also damaged the cultural assets of the city. A few dozen square meters of the ancient mosaic floor of the world famous St. Mark’s Basilica were flooded with salt water. Water also penetrated into the baptistery and into the chapel, in which there are picture cycles and single scenes from the legend of St. Mark. „In 24 hours, St. Mark’s Basilica aged by 20 years,“ said Carlo Alberto Tesserin, who is responsible for the Basilica. In the new millennium, the basilica was flooded for the second time.
Since May, work is underway on a system to protect St. Mark’s Square. This is to drastically reduce the floods that endanger the foundation of St. Mark’s Basilica every year.
Also damaged Miro tapestries
Also two tapestries of the artist Joan Miro (1893-1983), which should have been exhibited in a show in Venice, were damaged. As a result of the flooding, there were problems with the toilet on the second floor of the Palazzo Zaguri, where the exhibition of tapestries by great artists is to be inaugurated this week.
Water penetrated from the toilets to the second floor and damaged the tapestries, which were still in boxes. Each of the two carpets worth at least half a million euros, said the organizers of the show „Da Kandinsky a Botero, tutti in un filo“ (From Kandisky to Botero, all at one thread). The organizers of the show turned to a tapestry factory in the Piedmontese Asti to dry and clean the tapestries penetrated by salt water.
