FIRST, the good news: The Southern Hemisphere's only Antinous sculpture is safe ... the bust of Antinous as Dionysus (photo below right) is still safe and sound in Rio de Janeiro's Museum of Fine Art.
But now the tragic news: an inferno has destroyed the city's other major museum: the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, the oldest scientific institution in the country.
Most of the 20 million items it contained were reduced to ashes, including the oldest human remains ever found in the Americas.
The museum, located in a building that once served as the residence for the Portuguese royal family, celebrated its 200th anniversary this year.
It was only in 2016 that Rio de Janeiro hosted the Olympic Games ... an event into which Brazil poured billions of dollars.
But the result was severe cutbacks in funding for local projects, especially cultural infrastructure. This was a museum that many saw as long ignored and underfunded ... now, with devastating consequences for Brazil's heritage.
Fire prevention equipment was not working ... water hydrants in the district were inoperative ... firefighters had to pump water from a nearby lake.
The high priest of Antinous in Brazil is DECUS RIBEIRO, who issued this statement about the fire:"Companions! May Antinous weep for us tonight!! Our Louvre, our British Museum is gone. The Brazilian National Museum is ablaze!
"Once the Palace of Emperor Dom Pedro I and II, it housed prehistoric dinosaur skeletons, indigenous art and history, Etruscan, Roman, Greek and Egyptian pieces ... more than 20 million items.
"The building was also home to items covering the centuries from the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1500s to the declaration of a republic in 1889.
"The ethnology collection had unique pieces from the pre-Columbian era and artifacts from indigenous cultures. Among them were 2,000 mummies, 11,000 ancient human fossils ... including the First Brazilian, called Luzia.
"A fellow Antinous dedicant worked as an intern there. He's devastated beyond comprehension. We all are ... We who understand the value of History, Art, Culture and Beauty.
"There are no words.
"Absolutely no words."In a statement issued by the Hollywood Temple of Antinous, the founder of the modern-day Religion of Antinous, ANTONIUS SUBIA, had this to say about the devastating inferno:
Im so sorry for you Decus
Im sorry for all of us
Because this is a loss to humanity and civilization not just Brazil
Like the Library of Alexandria
Gone forever!
~ANTONIUS SUBIA
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