La Collezione Archeologica “Teresa Cristina di Borbone” nel Museo Nazionale a Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

Abstract

A wildfi re spread into the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in the beginning of the evening, on September 2nd, 2018. It destroyed the
biggest part of the historical building and the immense collection of millions of specimens, among Natural History, a Library full of rare opera
and maps, an important Egyptian collection, the Pre-Colombian ones, precious collections of fauna and fl ora from the whole world, skeletons
of the fi rst Pre-Historical inhabitants of the American continent, as the so called “Luzia”, found in Brazil, etc. Th is same Palace of Quinta da Boa
Vista, that has been the offi cial residence of the Real and Imperial Family of Orleans e Bragança, was also the lodging of seven hundred and seventy
one archaeological pieces, found and brought by the Italian Princess Teresa Cristina di Borbone (when married the Brazilian emperor D. Pedro
II): from Veii (Etruria) until Pompeii (Campania), Magna Graecia and Graecia, some of them exposed in the showcases of the above mentioned
Museum, but most of them closed in a storage at the pavement fl oor during at least one hundred years. Th eir destiny was, we will see, pieces
turned into dark grey clay for example, although we have proofs that they have been already spoiled many years before the fi re itself. And those
pieces of the exhibition, maybe were gone, but at least we can show here how they were, fi rst of the tragedy.