London Treasures Put in Deep Freeze

Harrods, the exclusive London department store, came to the rescue of the country’s cultural heritage Monday by deep-freezing rare art treasures salvaged from a weekend flood at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

Cases of premium Scotch beef in giant freezers were moved from the store’s meat department to make room for drenched manuscripts and old photographs rescued from the deluge caused by a broken water main.

“We are just round the corner from the museum and our people realized we could help them just when they needed it,” a spokesman for Harrods said.

“Freezing the documents will keep them safe until we can treat them individually. They would just disintegrate if we left them wet,” a spokesman for the museum said.