Brazil Lost 80 Percent of Its National Museum Collection in One Night. Here's How It's Fighting to Rebuild

An aerial view of the Rio de Janeiro under reconstruction. Brazil's Museu Nacional. The news arrived with both excitement and a pang of grief: The oldest national history museum in the Americas was slated to partially reopen for the first time since a 2018 fire destroyed more than 16 million objects—80 percent of its collections. “We put out tickets; it sold out in hours,” says Ronaldo Fernandes, director of the 208-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Before the fire, some 300,000 Brazilian schoolchildren visited the museum each year. My partner had been one of them, so I got us free tickets to the temporary exhibition in September 2025. The building, Paço São Cristóvão, was a former residence of Portuguese and Brazilian monarchs, and it was as regal as she remembered it. We found that the yellow-and-white facade had been restored, along with 30 statues of Greek gods that adorned the roofline. Inside, the Bendegó meteorite, a 11,820-pound space rock found in Brazil in 1784, had survived the flames and was still on display in the entry room.

But noticeable changes were everywhere. Some walls remained blackened from the flames. Steel support beams were still twisted and exposed. On the positive side of the experience, we saw new acquisitions, including a 51-and-a-half-foot-long sperm whale skeleton that hung from a fresh 138-glass-panel skylight. I left wanting more—but I would have to wait. The museum is still rebuilding its spaces and collections, targeting a 2029 reopening date.