In the night of Wednesday 14 to Thursday 15 July, the water in the Geul rose to such an extent that the entire center of Valkenburg was flooded up to 1.80 meter. Unfortunately, our museum could not escape the violence of nature and was flooded.
Until Friday afternoon, the area and the museum were not accessible and during a first inspection we got ‘goosebumps’ on our arms. The mess inside was indescribable, the water in the lower parts of our museum had been about 1 meter high. Fortunately, the works of art from the current exhibitions did not hang in the water, but turned out to be affected by the humidity. A specialized company immediately came to collect the works in order to bring them to safety in an external climate-controlled environment. Unfortunately, two works by Judith Krebbekx have been lost because the display case in which they were kept had fallen over due to the flooding.
The volunteers of the museum started mud clearing together on their Saturday off: the floors in the exhibition rooms were covered with a thick layer of mud after the water receded. In the coming weeks we will further assess and repair the damage. The museum is expected to be closed for several months.
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