Two days after an impressive fire that ravaged almost the entire Rio National Museum on Sunday, firefighters and police are trying to find in the rubble objects from the museum's collection that could be saved.
On Tuesday, firefighters and police conducted intense searches in the still smoking rubble of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, devastated by a fire on Sunday, hoping to find pieces of its prestigious collection.
The firemen have recovered a skull in the middle of the rubble and experts will analyze it to try to know if it is that of Luzia, human fossil of 12 000 years, the oldest ever found in Brazil, one of the jewels of the museum.
90% of the museum went up in smoke
In the late afternoon, a strong smell of burning still emanated from the former imperial palace which contained more than 20 million pieces of value, of which 90% went up in smoke, according to an assistant director of the museum.
The police also began their on-site investigation to determine the causes of the fire.
A few meters from the majestic walled building now burned, flowers were laid at the foot of a statue of Emperor Pedro II, who lived there in the late nineteenth century.
Brazilians' emotions and anger
"Now it is important for the government to take responsibility for protecting our heritage. We have lost our past, our history, but we can not give ourselves the luxury of losing our future, " said Paulo Andreas Buckub, professor of zoology at the museum.
The emotion caused by the devastation of this high place of Brazilian heritage quickly gave way to anger, many Brazilians denouncing the negligence of the government and recent government budget cuts in the areas of culture and research.
The public bank BNDES announced Tuesday that 25 million reais (about 5.2 million euros) would be invested in fire prevention and modernization of Brazilian museums.
BNDES President Dyogo Oliveira said he hoped to "avoid new episodes of this nature" .