A massive fire ripped through Rio de Janeiro’s treasured National Museum, one of Brazil’s oldest, in what the nation’s president says is a “tragic” loss of knowledge and heritage. Even before the embers had begun to cool early Monday, grief over the huge cultural loss had given way to anger at across-the-board budget cuts threatening Brazil’s multi-cultural heritage. The museum’s destruction caused a social media outcry and students and researchers gathered to demonstrate outside its still-smoldering remains. “It’s not enough just to cry, it is necessary that the federal government, which has resources, helps the museum to reconstruct its history,” the museum’s director Alexandre Keller said in front of the devastated building. The fire, the cause of which remains unknown, broke out late Sunday at around 2230 GMT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A massive fire ripped through Rio de Janeiro’s treasured National Museum, one of Brazil’s oldest, in what the nation’s president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications"],"yoast_head":"\n