Museum fire blamed on cuts
BRAZILIAN officials on Monday blamed years of government cutbacks for an inferno that gutted the treasured National Museum, described by President Michel Temer as a “tragic” loss of knowledge and heritage.
Even before the embers had begun to cool Monday, grief over the huge cultural loss gave way to anger at funding cuts many say are threatening Brazil’s multicultural heritage.
The museum’s destruction caused a social media outcry and a crowd of around 500 protesters gathered to form a human chain around its stillsmoldering remains.
“It’s not enough just to cry, it is necessary that the federal government, which has resources, helps the museum to reconstruct its history,” director Alexandre Keller said in front of the devastated building.
The majestic edifice was swept by flames on Sunday night after closing to the public as plumes of smoke shot into the night sky.
The fire had been largely smothered early on Monday, but not before it had torn through hundreds of artifactpacked rooms in the 13,000-squaremetre building.
By morning, the extent of the losses were still unclear – although a fire department spokesman said there were no reports of victims so far.
The natural history and anthropology museum – founded in 1818 and home to more than 20 million valuable pieces before the disaster – has suffered from funding cuts, forcing it to close some of its spaces to the public.
The head of finance and planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, on which the museum depends, described the destruction as “a loss to the whole world”.
“We are not going to put up with this strangulation of public resources anymore,” Roberto Antonio Gambine Moreira said.
The museum’s collection included art and artifacts from Greco-Roman times and Egypt, as well as the oldest human fossil found within today’s Brazilian borders, known as “Luzia”.
“Luiza is a priceless loss for everyone interested in civilisation,” said Paulo Knauss, director of Brazil’s natural history museum.
It also housed the skeleton of a dinosaur found in the Minas Gerais re- gion, along with the largest meteorite discovered in Brazil, which was named “Bendego” and weighed 5.3 tons.
Pieces covering a period of nearly four centuries – from the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1500s until the declaration of the first Brazilian republic in 1889 – were also stored there.
Culture is ‘grieving’
“There will be little or nothing left of the palace and the exhibits,” Culture Minister Sergio Sa Leitao tweeted.
A deputy director at the museum, Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, voiced “profound discouragement and immense anger” as the treasured institution burned, accusing Brazilian authorities of a “lack of attention.”
He said the museum, a former palace that was once the official residence of the Portuguese royal family, had always lacked necessary support.
The fire comes as campaigning for October’s critical presidential vote gets underway, one of the most uncertain Brazilian elections in decades.
Senator Lindbergh Farias of the country’s leftist Workers’ Party blamed the institution’s lack of funding on spending cuts ordered by the government.
Could have been avoided
Sa Leitao, who in July 2017 became culture minister under Temer acknowledged that “the tragedy could have been avoided” but said “the problems of the National Museum have been piling up over time.”
The minister recalled that in 2015 under the government of leftist Dilma Rousseff the museum had been closed for maintenance.
In a tragic irony, Leitao also said the fire struck just after the South American country’s National Development Bank had signed a sponsorship contract aimed at revitalisation.
He said a reconstruction project would be set in motion, adding “this tragedy serves as a lesson”.
“Brazil needs to take better care of its cultural heritage and the collections of its museums,” he said.
Marina Silva, a former environment minister who is running for president, called the blaze “equivalent to a lobotomy of the Brazilian memory”.
The collection, she said, “contains objects that helped define the national identity – and are now turning to ashes.”