Museum fire in Brazil

Namvet69

News flash! Huge fire at the National Museum of Brazil, everything destroyed except meteorites, wonder what coins and historic documents on numismatics have been lost? Peace Roy

worldcoinguy

I was wondering that myself. I find the entire story sad on many levels. The volume of cultural history lost in the fire is staggering. i imagine that it will take some time to fully understand the impact and loss.

BillDugan1959

Jewish scholars were concerned about a set of very old Torah writings/fragments in the Museum that the Royal family had purchased and brought to Brazil about two centuries ago.

They lucked out on that one. It seems the Museum had transferred the items in question to another separate Library about two years ago and simply hadn't notified the scholarly community of that fact. The other Library was quickly scheduled to show these items to interested scholars this week as evidence were they still extant.

May there be more good luck along this lines.

Namvet69

Don't look good, a large meteor is the only item that survived the fire. Peace Roy

BillDugan1959

You can't discount the possibility that it was arson meant to cover thefts. Bad for Brazil, but certain items might survive.

It seems that Pedro II was born in this former royal palace in 1825, so parts of the building were very old.

Namvet69

Oh yeah Brazil is very dysfunctional. There was no water in the hydrant system. Could be a huge crime of burglary and arson coverup. Not good. Peace Roy

Timbuk3

Any idea how it got started ? I know our local news here in Hawaii mentioned a feather cloak and headdress that was given to the Brazilian leader by Liholiho (King Kamehameha II) in the early 1800's may have been destroyed !!!

Namvet69

Oh yeah! There is an image of it. Beautiful bright yellow plumage large regal cloak. Gone. Peace Roy

BillDugan1959

Linky (includes several photos, including a photo of the fire):

http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/royal-hawaiian-feather-cloak-feared-lost-brazil-museum-fire

The statue seems to be Pedro II, who issued many nice coins during his very long reign.

WorldCoinsDmitry

This one really hurts

BillDugan1959

In Imperial times, this place (now burnt) was called 'The Palace of Saint Christopher'.

I own one of these, but this one is not mine. Recent Chinese counterfeits do exist. I've had mine since 1982, probably need to get it slabbed.

MrEureka

I’m told that the nation’s major numismatic collections are in other museums. Still, a sad reminder that even our coins will not last forever.

BillDugan1959

I visited the southern part of Brazil for a full month about 25 years ago. Nice trip. Some of my hosts knew that I was a coin person. They all, to a man, said that their provincial and local museums did have coin collections in the past, but that some trusted employee and even a revered priest had stolen the best gold and silver coins and then vamoosed. I did see some small museums, but they were finding it difficult to function in the constantly inflationary environment and some were only open by appointment.

Brazil is dysfunctional.

thisistheshow

Very interesting, informative, and sad information.

My wife is Brazilian. She lived in the south of Brazil until she was 17. My mother in law moved from Brazil to live with us a decade ago. They are both very sad about this event.
I talked to my wife about the hopeful possibility, as mentioned by another poster, that some of the items may resurface because they were actually stolen and the arson is a cover-up. She agreed that in Brazil this is possible.

ShadyDave

From the article(s) I read on the fire, it was due to the decrepit condition of the building. Many of the curators, workers and even politicians were trying to raise money to remodel the building. Exhibits were being shut down due to rotten floors, mold infested collections and there were reports of many "exposed wires". So while I wouldn't rule out arson to cover up theft and other corrupt acts that Brazil is know for, I think this was most likely due to the building itself being dangerous:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-fire-museum/tensions-flare-after-fire-destroys-brazil-museum-in-tragedy-foretold-idUSKCN1LJ00L

From the article above:

"Brazil’s culture minister Sergio Leitao told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper the blaze was likely caused by either an electrical short-circuit or a homemade paper hot-air balloon that may have landed on the roof. Launching such balloons is a long-held tradition in Brazil and they routinely cause fires.

“This was a tragedy foretold,” Cabral said, hugging distraught students and coworkers who poured into the site on Monday. “Successive governments would not provide funds, they would not invest in infrastructure.”

Between 2013 and 2017, the National Museum in Rio’s federal funding fell about a third, to 643,567 reais, according to official budget data. The funding cuts were particularly acute this year, with the museum receiving just 98,115 reais between January and August.

Late last year, after a termite attack shuttered a room hosting the bones of the Maxakalisaurus dinosaur, the National Museum was forced to turn to a crowdfunding site to seek funds for reopening the exhibit. "

Namvet69

So much corruption, political impropriety in such a large country. I am still amazed that the Olympic venue was allowed to self destruct. Peace Roy

JBK

So sad and disturbing on so many levels.

The pictures of the entire building ablaze were tough to see. Now, the "good news" is that maybe the fire was set to cover-up theft of valuable objects which might therefore have survived.

The fact that such a cynical and disturbing scenario is plausible due to Brazil's corruption is in itself disturbing.

Let's "hope" all the best stuff was indeed stolen.

I wonder how many other museums worldwide are in a similar condition and environment.

Tibor

The Brazilian "Smithsonian" lost.
Tragic.