At the beginning of 2024, the world lost thousands of paintings after a fire broke out in the national gallery of Abkhazia, located in Sukhum. From the 19th century until today, the world has witnessed six fires in galleries of global importance.
On February 16, 1864, a fire in Rotterdam (Netherlands) destroyed nearly 70% of the collection of the Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum. The fire broke out early in the morning, its cause has not yet been established.
Museum staff managed to get some of the paintings out of the building, but the others could not be saved as the key to the vault was lost in the commotion.
A total of 293 paintings by Danish, Dutch and French masters were lost as a result of the fire, as well as a collection of prints, porcelain and sculpture of the Netherlands Academy of Fine Arts and Technical Sciences, which occupied the first floor of the museum building.
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On August 13, 1947 a fire destroyed nearly 30% of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Strasbourg (France). In particular, paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Antonio del Pollaillo and others were lost.
On July 8, 1978 a fire destroyed the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fire is believed to have been caused by an unextinguished cigarette or faulty electrical installation.
Paintings by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, retrospectives of some Latin American artists and a collection of political posters were destroyed. Only 50 of over 1000 exhibits were saved.
On October 22, 2007 in Amersfoort (Netherlands) the private museum of Armando (Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd), located in a church building, burned down. The fire started during roofing work. Works by Albrecht Dürer, Jacob van Ruysdal, Charles-François Daubigny, etc. were destroyed in the fire.
On April 26, 2016, the National Museum of Natural History completely burned down in New Delhi, India. The cause of the fire has not been established, the fire extinguishing system in the building did not work. The largest paleontological and biological collection in India was destroyed.
On September 2, 2018, the National Museum of Brazil was completely destroyed by fire in Rio de Janeiro. Its collection consisted of more than 20 million exhibits, including archaeological artifacts, Egyptian antiquities, mummies, household objects, and minerals. They were all lost. The cause of the fire was a short circuit in the electrical installation of the air conditioner, which occurred as a result of overheating of the unit.
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