Brazil to reopen National Museum destroyed by fire in 2018

The National Museum stands in Rio de Janeiro ahead of its temporary reopening to the public following a 2018 fire, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s National Museum offered a glimpse of its renovated building and collection on Monday, two days before it reopens for visitors and seven years after a devastating fire destroyed it.

Journalists and special guests previewed the renovated museum in Rio de Janeiro, where they could also see a large part of its 20-million-artifact collection.

Brazil’s Education Minister Camilo Santana told journalists the museum’s complete renovation is slated for completion by the end of 2027. He added that the reconstruction budget of almost 517 million Brazilian reais (US$95 million) is being split between public and private companies.

The building was once a royal palace that served as the seat of the united Portuguese and Brazilian empire before the museum’s collection was transferred there in 1892.

Visitors will be welcomed at the main entrance by a symbol of the institution’s resilience: the Bendego meteorite, which weighs 5.6 tons and was found 241 years ago in the countryside of the state of Bahia.

Brazil’s Federal Police ruled out criminal offense in the 2020 fire, stating that the blaze in the former palace likely started with an air conditioning unit inside an auditorium near the front entrance. Arson was ruled out.

Some artifacts have been recovered, notably most fragments of a skull belonging to a woman dubbed Luzia. It is one of the oldest human fossils ever found in the Americas, and was a top museum treasure.

Recovery efforts were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.