The Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro Has Been Destroyed by a Fire

The National Museum of Brazil, the oldest of the South American country and one of the most prestigious institutions of natural history and anthropology of the Americas, was totally destroyed by a violent fire, which broke out on Sunday night (Sep 2nd, 2018) for reasons yet to be ascertained, which caused a irreparable disaster for global culture.

The Deputy Director Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, said that “this is a total catastrophe: 200 years of our historical memory, 200 years of memory, of science and culture that have been destroyed”. Created by King John VI and inaugurated in 1818, the National Museum is one of the oldest and most important museums in Brazil and has over 20 million pieces of value. The fire “is a tragedy for culture”, the director of another Brazilian museum, the National Historical Museum, Paulo Knauss, told TV Globo.