Fire destroys National Museum of Brazil
More than 20 million items believed to have been lost to the flames

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
A large fire has engulfed the 200-year-old National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, filling the skies with smoke and flames as firefighters worked through the night to try to save its priceless collection.
The fire, whose cause is currently unknown, reportedly broke out after the museum had closed for the day.
“Two hundred years of work, investigation and knowledge have been lost,” Brazilian president Michel Temer said, adding that it was “a sad day for all Brazilians”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The director of the National Museum, Paulo Knauss, told local media that the fire was “a tragedy”.
The BBC says the museum housed more than 20 million items in its collection, including “important dinosaur bones and a 12,000-year-old human skeleton of a woman - the oldest ever found in the Americas”.
Roberto Robadey, a spokesman for the fire department, said “80 firefighters were working to put out the blaze and that some pieces had been spared”, the Associated Press reports.
“We were able to remove a lot of things from inside with the help of workers of the museum,” Robadey said.
The building, once the residence of the Portuguese royal family during the colonial era, was converted into a museum 200 years ago.
Staff at the museum had reportedly been complaining about the condition of the building, calling on the government to fund urgently needed repairs.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Drug could allow you to 'grow new teeth'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
Woman reunited with egg she signed in 1951
It Wasn't All Bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
10 things you need to know today: September 16, 2023
Daily Briefing Ripple effects seen throughout auto industry as UAW strikes, Lee expected to bring flooding and storm winds to New England, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
American rescued after 12 days in Turkish cave
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
What Mexico’s first female president might mean for the ‘femicide nation’
feature The Latin American country is grappling with misogynist crime amid a backdrop of progress for women in politics
By Rebekah Evans Published
-
Ukrainian military has ‘shown how the Russian army can be beaten’
Talking Point Recent Ukrainian frontline advances may offer hope for its counter-offensive
By The Week Staff Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Protests in Syria: could they bring down the Assad regime?
Talking Point Threat to power grows amid poverty, inflation and ‘botched’ response to earthquake
By The Week Staff Published