Rio’s National Museum gets private donation of 1,104 fossils
The National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), currently under reconstruction after the 2018 fire, has received 1,104 pieces from the family of collector Burkart Pohl, of the Swiss-German group Interprospekt. The donation was made through a partnership with the Inclusartiz Institute, chaired by Argentinian cultural activist based in Brazil Frances Reynolds, and the National Museum. The articles have already been stored at the museum.
Purchased at international fairs, the items are fossils of animals and plants from the Araripe Basin, located between the states of Ceará, Pernambuco, and Piauí, in the Brazilian Northeast, where the Crato and Romualdo formations are found, two locations rich in paleontological material dating back 115 million and 110 million years respectively.
“We’ll get the chance to study this material and conduct research involving not only the description but also the reconstruction of the Araripe basin 110 million years ago. What’s more, these beautiful fossils will help us reassemble our exhibitions when the museum reopens,” said National Museum paleontologist Juliana Sayão.
After answering a call from National Museum Director Alexander Kellner, Frances Reynolds, a major name on the fine arts scene both in Brazil and around the world, signed a technical collaboration agreement in 2022 between Inclusartiz and the Friends of the National Museum Association (SAMN). Since then, she has been working to recover the collection of the museum, which had 85 percent of its artifacts destroyed by fire.
This is how the Argentinian brokered the donation to the National Museum. Burkart Pohl came to the conclusion that Brazilian pieces in his extensive collection should go to the National Museum. “There has to be a stock of fossils from Brazil in the most important museum in the country,” Reynolds argued.
Reconstruction
“We’re calling on more people to do this. The National Museum belongs to everyone and it means a lot for us to get a chance to really focus on restoring our collections,” said the director, who is already waiting for a new donation from the Pohl family. “It’s in my prayers everyday,” he added, smiling after the press conference.
Alexander Kellner is working on securing 10 thousand items through donations to rebuild the collection. The museum, he pointed out, has received approximately 2 thousand objects.
Frances Reynolds said she is an admirer of the work of the National Museum and stressed the need for various players to come together to restore the cultural space. “The only way to change this is by having everyone come together—everyone who can share their money and ideas, open doors, and pave the way for others,” she said.
Fossil collection
Burkart Pohl boasts one of the most representative private fossil collections in the world. As a great enthusiast of natural history museums, he created the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in the US and the Sino-German Paleontological Museum in Liaoning, China. The two are part of a group that also develops global projects for excavations, exhibitions, education, and commerce related to natural history.
In one of these initiatives, a group of six paleontologists and students from the National Museum accepted Pohl’s invitation in August 2023 to take part in the first joint excavation trip to the northwest of the US. The site is known as the dinosaur fossil–rich lands of the Hell Creek Formation, in the states of Wyoming and Montana.
According to the National Museum, two of the team’s students have started studying fossil specimens there. The group is expected to return to the region later this year. In paleontologist Juliana Sayão’s view, the experience is of great importance. “We have the opportunity to be in a place where no Brazilian paleontologist has the chance to research, look for fossils and, most importantly, bring them to the museum,” she said in an interview to Agência Brasil.
Sayão revealed what researchers in this project dream of: “To find the T-rex because it lives there. It’s where we find fossils like the T-rex, the triceratops, and other famous dinosaurs that we saw in the movie Jurassic Park, which we don’t have in Brazil. [There,] we can not only train our students to collect fossils, but also make great discoveries to illustrate our museum,” she declared.
