Report reveals damage to artistic treasures in Brazil riot
Modernist furniture was burned, portraits defaced, sculptures decapitated and ceramics smashed.
The trail of destruction left behind by the horde of rioters who invaded government buildings in Brasilia on January 8 in an attack on Brazil’s democracy has been revealed.
Following a painstaking survey of the ruins, the national artistic heritage institute released a 50-page report, the bulk of which is a photographic catalogue of the damages.
They go far beyond the shattered glass on the exteriors of the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, all architectural icons.
Carpets were found soaked with water from the buildings’ sprinkler systems, as well as with urine.
The rioters – die-hard supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his election defeat – marred the iconic marble ramp leading up to the presidential palace with scratches, some stretching two feet in length, according to the report.
Into a historic wooden table at the Supreme Court they carved “Supreme are the people” – a phrase popular among backers of Mr Bolsonaro, who often strained against the checks of the top court.
Among the artworks destroyed was a 17th-century clock made by Balthazar Martinot and that the French royal court gifted to the Portuguese king.
A 60-year-old bronze sculpture of a flautist by Bruno Giorgi was also damaged, and its pieces found spread across a room on the presidential palace’s third floor.
Vandals pitched rocks through the canvas of a mural by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti.
The presidential palace said in its statement that the painting, As Mulatas, is valued at some 1.5 million dollars (£1.2 million), though works of that size tend to fetch quintuple that amount at auction.
The work “was perforated in seven places using rocks taken from the square with a pickaxe. Which is to say, there is a movement of intolerance toward what this palace represents”.
The total cost of the destruction has not yet been established.
Senate president Rodrigo Pacheco placed the damage in his congressional chamber alone in the millions.
The day after the uprising, justice minister Flavio Dino said Federal Police surveys will enable the attorney-general’s office to hold perpetrators financially responsible.
“The idea is to create a memorial about this violence we suffered, so that it never happens again.”
