Loss of Indigenous Works in Brazil Museum Fire Felt ‘Like a New Genocide’

This is a great loss to all humanity. Cultures are more than just heritage to the descendants of those who created them, they are human beings’ solutions to the challenges of living and of living together. They represent the best of what people can produce. Their loss is our loss.

The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro is responsible for the museum. The money comes from the government but the University decides how it is spent. 80% of the money goes to paying the salaries of the employees and the directors. A $5.23 million financing plan with the state-run development bank BNDES had to be postponed because a plan to install modern fire protection equipment was missing in the project. "We all knew the building was vulnerable” said Roberto Leher, rector of the University. Yes, and you did nothing! Resign!

It was certainly a tragedy but overusing the word "genocide" is just going to confuse and inure people. There was no killing. The destruction hit all of the exhibits, including the ones put there by the ruling elite telling their stories and justifying their existence. It hurt everyone -- including all citizens of the world who revel in its diversity.

I've long considered the deliberate burning of the great library of Alexandria one of histories great crimes and a huge blow to our understanding of our origins. What is even more tragic about our current times is the total loss of cultural knowledge despite much better ways of preserving it. Of course, art objects are unique, and facsimiles are still facsimiles, but notebooks, writings, recordings etc. can be copied ad infinitum. It just takes resources, time and will. You don't have to be an indigenous person to feel this loss acutely. Cultural history is world history. I did not know this museum existed until this article, but I do know we've lost forever whole volumes of our collective origins. This should serve as a wake-up call to all of us who consider history important. In Mali, for example, with Isis an ever present threat, there is a big effort to digitize the Timbuktu documents and save another yet another part of our heritage. New Yorkers should remember that the Helen Keller archive was destroyed on September 11. The clock is always ticking before the next flood, fire or war.

This unnecessary tragedy reflects the priorities of Western culture, as seen in the efforts of "developing" countries to go corporate, like the U.S. In so doing, they are wiping away the true treasures they hold - the wisdom of their indigenous communities. We need that wisdom now. Isn't it beyond obvious that our western capitalist corporate ways - from climate change to ever-increasing economic inequality - are destroying the world?

ALL of the works lost in this museum fire are important. It's like saying only certain people's lives matter.

The major indigenous art pieces have been extensively documented and could be recreated as beautiful facsimiles which could well serve as inspiration and educational objects, though obviously this is not the same as saving them. A restoration of this kind could be easily done in Brazil because highly qualified artisans (often indigenous brazilians) still work regularly with feathers, raffia, wood, natural dyes and pigments and all the materials used in the originals. Paying them to do this, with the guidance of museum staff working with the visual archives to restore at least a few of the major works which do not have comparable examples from other collections would be an invaluable asset to the museum's rebirth and would provide support and promotion of the indigenous artisans and their crafts.

The loss of this art is incomprehensible but the fire can be easily understood. Their is a long slow history of decline within the city of Rio de Janeiro, and a particular brazilian neglect of it's artistic patrimony. To understand this tragedy you have to understand that history. Once upon a time one of the world's great cities Rio still might return to her throne again — but it doesn't look like she will. The museum's care was pawned off on the University by the state to avoid the cost. Imagine the Smithsonian being turned over to the University of Maryland with no additional funding to understand the cynicism of the move. The state short changed the university which, already underfunded, focused on students instead (what it's supposed to do). A long list of fires and thefts have taken place in the most important collections in Rio and Sao Paulo in recent years, because museums appeal to the educated and Brazil won't educate it's people. The uneducated Brazilians flock to the easy promises of Populists who then simply steal EVERYTHING with impunity. There was plenty of money in Rio to install a sprinkler system in this building. The city recently spent billions on new stadiums and the Olympics, but the scale of the theft of public funds is beyond bank robbery, still the people are simply too poorly educated to make good judgements at the polls - 35% want to vote for the former President who is in jail for stealing their money.

This terrible tragedy could have been avoided. The Brazilian government's attitude toward the museum was one of benign neglect. It takes funding and a staff of professionally trained museum professionals to run a museum in the twenty-first century. The problems that face Brazil's National Museum are not unique, however. Lack of funding, staff, and resources plagued many museums worldwide that hold national treasures, so that the responsibility of stewardship of these vast and irreplaceable collections is left to those who do not have the adequate resources to deal with instituting preventative measures in place, like fire suppression systems. I don't blame the museum's director for being angry one bit, but this situation should serve as a collective warning and call to other museums that museum collections care cannot be put off for a later day. Museums need support and Codes of Ethics that are taken seriously. Museums are institutions of public trust, and in this case, the Brazilian government looked the other way, and that trust was totally squandered.

Please don't cheapen the word "genocide".

What a world tragedy! The Brazilian government and those officials who neglected this museum and invested in boutique projects to show the world how " advanced" Brazil is , have committed a crime against humanity. Unfortunately, they have got away with it. Remorse is not enough.

The Dean of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, together with the Director and vice-Director of the museum are accountable for this disaster. However, they seem to want to blame the Federal Government instead. So does the mídia. I can only hope that the investigation is effective and that those who are accountable are punished.