Grief and Anger Mingle After Devastating Brazil Museum Fire

People watch as a fire burns at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on 2nd September, 2018.

The fire's orange glow glints off people standing nearby. Created in June 1818, the 200-year-old museum held some 20 million artefacts.

Flames erupt from the museum's roof, backlighting the statues fringing its upper levels. The museum is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The National Museum, or Museu Nacional in Portuguese, glows like a torch against the tree-covered darkness of Quinta da Boa Vista, the urban park in northern Rio de Janeiro that contains the museum.

A drone peers down on the museum's burnt-out shell on 3rd September, 2018, the day after the fire.

Some of the museum's collections survived, but officials estimate that at least 90 percent of its 20 million artefacts have been reduced to ashes.

Municipality police guard the National Museum on 3rd September.

A worker carries a piece of a rock from the National Museum.

The meteorite Bendegó, the largest ever found in Brazil, was one of the few artefacts in the museum's main building that withstood direct contact with the flames.

Staff react and console one another outside the National Museum on 3rd September.

Students protest in front of the National Museum. Protests broke out across Rio de Janeiro in the fire's aftermath, as residents blamed the museum's fragility on years of neglect and underfunding.

Students hold a demonstration outside the National Museum.

Protestors demonstrate in front of the National Museum on 3rd September.