Restoration of Brazil’s Museum Destroyed by Fire Could Take Years, UNESCO Says

The restoration of Brazil’s National Museum, destroyed by a fire on Sept. 2, could take years, experts told journalists on Sept. 18.

Jose Luiz Pedersoli who works for the ICCROM, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in Brazil, said that based on experiences in other countries, it could take up to 10 years to restore just a part of the vast collections that were on display in the Brazilian museum.

Pedersoli is part of a group of specialists in recovery and reconstruction working with UNESCO, the UN’s cultural agency, that last week visited the museum in Rio de Janeiro.

During a news conference in Brasilia, the director of the group, Cristina Menegazzi, said the team, which includes experts from Germany and Brazil who have experience working with pieces of national heritage damaged in warzone and fires, is studying the best way to rescue objects that survived the fire.

UNESCO officials also said that Germany will contribute with 1 million euros (approximately 1.167 million US dollars) and have sent experts.

Other European countries including Italy and France, as well as Canada and the United States, have also offered to help with rescue and rebuilding efforts.

The Brazilian government has promised 2.4 million US dollars to the National Museum and has vowed to rebuild the institution.

With the cause of the fire still under investigation, the disaster has led to a series of recriminations amid accusations that successive governments had not sufficiently funded the museum, and it has raised concerns that other institutions might be at risk.

Officials have said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repair.

The vice director of the museum said that as much as 90 percent of Latin America’s largest collection of treasures might have been lost in the fire that broke out at night on Sept. 2.

Aerial photos of the main building showed only heaps of rubble and ashes in the parts of the building where the roof collapsed.

In its collection of about 20 million items, one of the most prized possessions was a skull called Luzia, among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas.

Among the other objects on display were mummies and other Egyptian artifacts, skeletons of dinosaurs, and objects and documents of studies of the ancient tribes of America.