A fire destroyed part of the building that houses the Natural History Museum and the Botanical Garden of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), in Belo Horizonte, capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
The fire started around 6:00 am local time and was controlled in the morning, according to information from the Fire Department.
The G1 news portal reported that the aftermath of the fire needed to be done carefully to preserve the collection, made up of more than 260,000 items, including pieces of archeology, paleontology, historical cartography, popular art, ethnography, botany, geology , zoology and a library.
The site also houses the Pipiripau Presépio, by artist Raimundo Machado.This nativity scene is considered a treasure of 20th century Brazilian popular art, has 586 pieces and features 45 scenes, which tell the life of Jesus Christ.
The work was not affected by the fire as it was in another location.
Mariana Lacerda, director of the UFMG museum, told the news portal that her team still “does not have much information about the scope and losses that the fire will cause” and that “the time is [to] wait for the firefighters to act ”.“What was affected is a part of the central administration building, mainly three rooms of the technical reserve where the collections that are not on display are located, affected a very important part of the museum, but we will only have the dimension after the expertise happen, ”he added.
UFMG informed that it should create a commission of professors and specialists to assess the losses.
