Google Project, which started to digitalize the museum works and artifacts in 2016, with detailed records of the collection, is available for free online access
The National Museum, in Rio de Janeiro, used to keep a natural and cultural treasure with over 20 million cataloged items, the largest in Latin America and one of the largest in the world. Based in Palácio de São Cristóvão (Palace of Saint Christopher), which served as residence to the Brazilian royal and imperial family, was destroyed by a fire of huge proportion on September 2, 2018. The fire consumed 90% of natural paleontology and Egyptian archeology, as well as classic and indigenous pieces, in addition to various objects from the collection.
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Although lost items cannot be rescued or restituted, a Google Arts & Culture project wants to keep the National Museum active, even if only virtually.
Google has been working on the digitalization of the museum collection and the building itself since 2016, with resources such as high-resolution photographs, photogrammetry and 3D laser-scanning, aiming to provide virtual and augmented reality experiences. Today, the work allows the digital reconstitution of the space and the collection, as well as a virtual tour through images showing how the institution used to be until that ominous September 2.
Google’s Arts & Culture project, which developed an online platform designed to show, digitally, the collections of the Brazilian museum, is already online. The website highlights the historical data and the set of works and artifacts preserved and visited by scientists, researchers, students and the general public.
“It’s worth noting that The National Museum, in spite of losing a significant part of its collection, has never lost its capacity of yielding knowledge,” says Alexander Kellner, director of The National Museum, in the introducing text preceding the virtual tour, guided by the institution exhibits.
Besides visiting rooms guided by audio description and historical narratives that provide details on objects, visitors may also browse halls, guided by their eyes, and search for a realistic panorama of the facilities.
The platform also shows the collection highlights showing a detailed digitalization of these objects, besides photographs that map out the exact place they occupied before the fire. You can visit Luzia, the oldest skeleton of the Americas, Bendegó meteorite, a tyrannosaurus, a marajoara vase, the goddess Venus from the original Greek royal collection, and Sha-amun-en-su’s sarcophagus, among others.
Are you curious?
Visit https://artsandculture.google.com/project/museu-nacional-brasil and find out the historical and archeological beauties of the National Museum right now!
Content published in March 15, 2019
What Braskem is doing about it?
Em parceria com a Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo desde 2015, a Braskem mantém apoio ao Laboratório de Conservação e Restauro do museu, que é referência na revitalização de trabalhos feitos em plástico e onde se encontra o único laboratório do país com um especialista no restauro de peças com esse material. Somente no primeiro ano de atividades, foram restauradas 162 obras do acervo. Em 2016, a Braskem estendeu o patrocínio ao restauro de obras do Parque Jardim da Luz, próximo da Pinacoteca, e a inclusão de novos conteúdos sobre essas peças em Libras no aplicativo do acervo da Pinacoteca. “Temos orgulho em poder patrocinar a iniciativa do Laboratório de Conservação e Restauro que se conecta tão bem ao nosso propósito, de que a química e o plástico melhoram a vida das pessoas. Neste caso, a partir do uso do plástico na recuperação do patrimônio cultural”, disse Claudia Bocciardi, diretora de Marketing da Braskem.
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