The skeleton of a sperm whale has been donated to the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro by the NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) Aquasis. The piece is 15.7 meters long (about the size of a bus). It will help rebuild the museum collection, partly destroyed by a fi re in 2018.

Since June 6th, when the National Museum celebrated its 204th anniversary, the whale has been on display in another location in the capital of Rio de Janeiro. It is in the exhibition “What kind of whale is this?” in Cidade das Artes, as the National Museum is only scheduled to re-open in 2027.

“The skeleton donated to the institution is even more important because of how it came to us, another achievement of the #Recompõe campaign, launched in 2021, and aimed at rebuilding the National Museum’s exhibition collection. The goal continues to be to raise awareness among museums, research institutions, different representative collectivities of our society and collectors from all over the world to donate original pieces”, declared Alexander Kellner, director of the National Museum.

The piece is a whale that ran aground in 2014 on Curimãs beach in Ceará. It will be exhibited in Cidade das Artes for two years. Visits are free.

NATIONAL MUSEUM

It was founded in 1818 by Dom João VI, the King of Portugal then (at the time, Brazil was a Portuguese colony). Almost the entire collection in the museum, or 12,000 pieces, was destroyed in a fire in 2018. It is estimated that the recovery will cost 385 million reais.

Questions

1) Where is the skeleton on display now?

a) In the National Museum

b) The piece is not on display.

c) In Cidade das Artes

d) At Rio de Janeiro’s city hall

2) Would you like to see an exhibition with animal skeletons? Why?

Sources: Agência Brasil, Estadão, National Museum, and the government of the city of Rio de Janeiro

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