DRESDEN -- Dresden's art and architectural treasures, including the Semper Opera House and the Zwinger Palace Museum, have been saved from serious lasting damage from this week's floods, an official said Saturday.

Contrary to earlier reports that the two major sites had been abandoned to the flood waters, Dresden state opera spokeswoman Barbara Henneke said staffers and volunteers had been working around the clock throughout the ordeal, DPA reported.

She conceded that pumps around the Theater Platz had been turned off briefly, but said they were started up again on Friday in a renewed effort to save the monuments.

This past week, as the waters rose inexorable, some 200 museum workers, police officers and federal troops scrambled to remove 6,000 works of art from the basement and ground floor of the buildings.

The major paintings are now lined up on the floor along upper story corridors.

Six paintings too large to move were attached by ropes to pipes in the ceiling of the Zwinger Museum to keep them high and dry.

At the Opera House, basement stage equipment, props and some costume accessories were ruined in the flooding.

Fortunately, the state orchestra is currently on tour, so that no equipment or musical instruments were liable to damage except for a basement room with grand pianos.