Template:POTD/2020-11-03
After much heavy rain on 3 November 1966, devastating floods occurred in Florence, damaging or destroying millions of works of art and rare books. New conservation techniques were inspired by the disaster, but even decades later, hundreds of works still await restoration. Due to a lack of awareness, funding and manpower, a great number of works of art and books lie in storage, dirty and damaged. In a 2007 letter, a conservator called attention to this problem, stating that the National Central Library still has a "warehouse" full of books to be repaired and bound, with many others needing to be cleaned or reassembled. This photograph shows the cleaning of manuscripts from the National Central Library in the boiler room of Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station.Photograph credit: Dominique Roger; restored by Adam Cuerden