[falcor84]

The story focused on the hydrants, but I would expect a repository of such value to have very powerful fire safety mechanisms and strict procedures around them to prevent the spread of fire in the first place. What happened? Was it just about the lack of funds?

[andrenth]

The problem was not the hydrants. There were warnings about possible fires dating from 2004, with exposed wires and terrible conditions in general.

This is the fault of government bureaucracy and irresponsibility (eg. during the World Cup year a restoration was approved but the money never released — but money for stadiums was abundant).

Brazil’s ministry of culture (ha!) has historically spent millions sponsoring dozens of mainstream artists, but a museum with old stuff in it is unable to take part in political party propaganda.

Finally, the museum is administrated by a federal university whose directors refuse to take private money via donations (apparently leaving the museum in terrible conditions is preferable to taking dirty money from evil rent seeking capitalists...).