200-year-old museum in Rio de Janeiro Destroyed by Fire - 2 SEPT 2018

[Marc]

200-year-old National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro Destroyed by Fire

CBS's article: National Museum fire today: Massive blaze engulfs 200-year-old museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - CBS News

National Museum in northern Rio, which houses artifacts from Egypt, Greco-Roman art and some of the first fossils found in Brazil.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, I went to this museum a few times. Despite having a world class collection of artifacts, as usual in most of the developing world, bureaucrats don’t feel the pressure to spend the money in maintaining old buildings. Very likely a short circuit triggered the fire as the electrical installation was old and poorly maintained. No sprinkler or any fixed fire fighting system installed.

From what I heard they lost over 90% of the collection, including the skeleton of what is supposed to be oldest human bones found in the Americas, over 12,000 years old. Ironically one of the items that naturally survived is a meteor that weighs over 5 tons.

A country that hosted a soccer World Cup and Olympic Games in the last 4 years, having spent billions of dollars to build stadiums and venues could not spend a few million dollars remodeling one of its most historical buildings.
Tragic.

 

[Marc]

I was totally shocked. An unbelievable loss. I've never been to Rio, but I love museums. Hard to believe - No sprinkler system in such a valuable place.