The museum was founded in 1818 by the king of Portugal. Portugal was then Brazil's colonial power.
It housed more than 20 million items of historic value, including mummified bodies of indigenous people, but many of them are now lost.
Brazilian President Michel Temer said in a statement that 200 years of work, research and knowledge has been lost and it's a sad day for all Brazilians.
The museum had suffered declining funding for years amid the country's economic collapse, despite the fact that the need for repairs had repeatedly been pointed out. Local media report that the cause of the fire was likely to be an electrical fault resulting from the deterioration of equipment in the museum.
People across the country are blaming the government for neglect to infrastructure and services. In Rio de Janeiro, about 25,000 people gathered for a demonstration, shouting that the government should spend more money in the field of education.
The museum fire has made educational spending one of the key issues in next month's presidential election.
Read the original article on www3.nhk.or.jp
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