madrid a fire destroyed an entire collection of more than 20 million historical pieces at brazils national museum in rio de janeiro sunday night including a 12000yearold fossil called luzia which is the oldest dated skeleton in the americas an incalculable loss for the brazilian people for us brazilian people luzia is the ultimate brazilian ana cristina a 45yearold who works for the municipality of rio de janeiro state told abc news every brazilian studied her in school no matter how old we are we all know luzia and now its over it is very sad it is 200 years of brazilians heritage it is 200 years of memory it is 200 years of culture my feeling is an immense anger definitely an unbearable catastrophe marina amaral a brazilian historical colorist explained that in addition to the skull of luzia a collection of egyptian mummies acquired by emperor dom pedro i in the 1800s was also destroyed more egypt to open new museum in hopes of boosting tourism the building itself was a loss for the nation too people watch as a fire burns at the national museum of brazil in rio de janeiro sept 2 2018 ricardo moraes reuters the building was the place where the proclamation of independence of brazil was signed in 1822 amaral said the original document as well as many archives were probably lost in this fire the cause of the devastating fire remains unclear it was like setting versailles on fire years of history that can never be recovered the country was already shocked by a series of political corruption cases in the upcoming presidential elections and now has to face the destruction of a priceless collection of art representing its national identity the museum was founded in 1818 by king john vi of portugal it used to be a palace for the royal family under portuguese rulers and later for the brazilian imperial family it has served as a museum since 1892 this file photo taken on sept 20 1999 of a reconstruction of the head of luzia the first brazilian woman during its presentation at the national museum of history in rio de janeiro antonio scorzaafpgetty images luiz duarte vice director of the museum said on brazilian tv that he had asked for many years for additional funding to protect all the museums resources it is 200 years of brazilians heritage duarte said it is 200 years of memory it is 200 years of culture my feeling is an immense anger definitely an unbearable catastrophe more bostons museum of fine arts hires a bugsniffing puppy to protect its collections police stand in the front of the national museum of brazil after a devastating fire sept 3 2018 in rio de janeiro buda mendesgetty images felipe barroso a 29yearold architecture student told abc news that there was a real lack of maintenance despite the building being the largest natural history museum in latin america for us brazilian people a spokesperson