Haunting Aerial Photos Show Devastation Caused By Brazil National Museum Fire

Lee Moran

These aerial photographs lay bare the utter devastation caused by a fire that ripped through the National Museum of Brazil on Sunday night.

The haunting images reveal just how much of the 200-year-old scientific institution in Rio de Janeiro ― once home to some 20 million artifacts, of which an estimated 90 percent may have been lost forever ― was completely gutted by the inferno.

The cause of the blaze remained under investigation as workers began the enormous cleanup operation Monday and as protesters campaigned against recent cuts to the museum’s budget.

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