DRC: thousands of historical objects destroyed in the fire of the largest private museum in the country

The fire at the Gungu museum occurs in a context where the Congolese museum sector lacks resources.

Here, a mask at the National Museum of the DRC, which wanted to repair these shortcomings with its opening in 2019, in Kinshasa.

AFP / Samir Tounsi

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The Gungu Museum, the largest private museum in the Democratic Republic of Congo, went up in smoke on the night of Thursday November 4 to Friday November 5, with more than 20,000 exhibits, including traditional masks and other valuable historical artifacts. , perishing in a fire of unknown origin.

Those responsible for this site in the province of Kwilu favor the criminal track, the police have launched an investigation.

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With our correspondent in Kinshasa,

Aristotle Kibala, the founder and director of the Gungu museum, is inconsolable: he considered the collection a “ 

 ”, he said in tears.

According to its statistics, this site was full of " 

 ", 85% of which were placed on the shelves of ancient art.

There were several varieties of the famous Pende tribe mask, immortalized on some banknotes and sold in several galleries around the world.

Some of these objects were centuries old, others much older. 

The entire collection was worth " 

 ," adds the museum director.

Today, there are only around 1,000 “ 

 ” that have withstood the fire in the ruins of this building.

The latter had been erected with funding from the Kingdom of Belgium and equipped in particular by a project from the Netherlands.

Aristotle Kibala calls for the intervention of the government and other private and international operators to rehabilitate the few pieces that remain to start a new collection.

The Congolese museum sector is

.

In

, for example, more than 30,000 pieces are still awaiting the construction of new buildings to be exhibited.

The DRC has lost a great world heritage ”, according to Aristote Kibala, its founder and director of the Gungu museum, burned down

Christina okello

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