The attack by far-right supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro on the country’s seat of government saw extensive damage done to numerous artworks and the protected Oscar Niemeyer architecture of the complex.
A little after 3pm local time on Sunday – when the government buildings were largely empty – thousands breached a security cordon around the Esplanada dos Ministérios in Brasília, first gaining entry to the National Congress building, before going on to break into the Supreme Court building and the presidential palace. They demanded that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was inaugurated as president on New Year’s Day having won 52 percent of the vote, step down or be deposed by the armed forces. Lula was in São Paulo at the time of the attack.
Among the works that are reported to be damaged is a 1962 painting by Di Cavalcanti titled As Mulatas (1962), with images appearing to show six rips in the canvas. A stained glass window in the chamber of deputies by Marianne Peretti, the only woman on Niemeyer’s team, was smashed. Made in the 1970s the French-Brazilian artist died last year. A crucifix is also believed to have been damaged and a 1961 sculpture titled A Justiça by the twentieth century artist Alfredo Ceschiatti was graffitied. Sculptures by Argentine contemporary artist Marta Minujín and Polish-born Brazilian Frans Krajcberg were also targeted.
Videos show that the architecture, often regarded as Niemeyer’s greatest achievement on completion in 1960, was also damaged by fire and water, and furniture overturned.
Protesters also disrupted the Museu Nacional da República in the capital with video circulating on social media showing a woman touching exhibits. When challenged she tells a staff member, “It’s an insult to us Brazilians who work and pay for a bunch of artists who don’t do anything [but] inventing this kind of thing”.
During his time in power Bolsonaro frequently rallied against artists, criticising the use of public money in cultural areas. Last week Lula reopened the Ministry of Culture, closed by his predecessor on his first day in power in 2018. The new Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes, said on Monday that the National Institute of Historical Heritage (Iphan) would fully evaluate the material damage in the coming days.
Echoing the words of the president, and many world leaders who offered their support in the immediate aftermath of the attack, Menezes said, “The world watches, appalled, the violence of extreme right-wing terrorism against the Brazilian democratic state. The squandering of public property and freedom of our people will not be tolerated. The culprits will be identified and rigorously punished according to the law.’’
Bolsonaro himself flew out to the US a day before his rival’s inauguration and is currently holed up in the Florida home of a mixed-martial-arts performer. The ex-president condemned the attack, but compared it to “those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017”, referring to a wave of popular protests in the country.
