The rioter horde that stormed government buildings on January 8 in an attack on Brazil’s democracy left behind a trail of destruction whose full extent is only now being fully glimpsed.
After a thorough study of the ruins, the National Institute of Artistic Heritage released a 50-page report on Thursday night, most of which is a photographic catalog of the damage. They go far beyond the broken glass outside the presidential palace, the Congress and the Supreme Court, all architectural icons.
Modernist furniture was burned, portraits were defaced, sculptures were decapitated, and ceramics were broken. Carpets were found soaked with water from the buildings’ sprinkler systems, as well as urine.
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The rioters, staunch supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept their electoral defeat, marred the iconic marble ramp leading to the presidential palace with scratches, some measuring two feet long, according to the report. On a historic wooden table at the Supreme Court they carved “Supreme is the people,” a popular phrase among Bolsonaro supporters, who often strove against high court checks.
Among the destroyed works of art was a 17th-century clock made by Balthazar Martinot and gifted to the Portuguese king by the French royal court. The only other Martinot clock in existence is in France’s Palace of Versailles, even though it is half the size, Brazil’s presidency said in a statement. A 60-year-old bronze sculpture of a flutist by Bruno Giorgi was also vandalized (should it be thrown away?), its pieces found scattered around a room on the third floor of the presidential palace.
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A damaged 17th century clock, gifted to Portuguese royalty by Louis XIV, is displayed in the presidential office on January 11, 2023, after protesters stormed the building in Brasilia, Brazil.
(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Vandals threw stones through the canvas of a mural by Emiliano Di Calvalcanti. The presidential palace said in its statement that the painting, “As Mulatas,” is valued at about $1.5 million, although works of that size tend to go five times that amount at auction.
“The damage was not random, it was obviously deliberate,” Rogerio Carvalho, curator of the presidential palace, said in an interview as he sat in front of the defaced painting. The work “was pierced in seven places with rocks taken from the square with a pick. In other words, there is a movement of intolerance towards what this palace represents.”
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The full cost of the destruction has yet to be established. The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, calculated the damage in his chamber of Congress alone in millions.
The day after the uprising, Justice Minister Flávio Dino said that Federal Police surveys will allow the attorney general’s office to hold the perpetrators financially accountable.
This collection “is an artistic treasure of the Brazilian people, which belongs to the nation and whose integrity must be respected,” Brazilian Culture Minister Margareth Menezes told reporters on Tuesday. “The idea is to create a memorial about this violence that we suffered, so that it never happens again.”
