The loss is priceless.
Nearly 25,000 pieces or works of art, including a collection of Pende masks, kept at the National Museum of Gungu, in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), were entirely consumed in a fire of unknown origin, we learned Saturday from local sources.
"A national treasure has disappeared",
deplored Friday for the Congolese media 7sur7 the deputy Franck Gatola Mungiela.
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“The fire took place the night of Thursday to Friday. I heard a loud cannon shot around 1 a.m. (...). The museum had more than 25,000 pieces or works of art valued at $ 15 million. It was not possible to save even a room
, told AFP Aristotle Kibala, founder and director of the Gungu museum, located in the province of Kwilu.
The exact reasons for this heinous act are not yet known.
But I know that I have always been fought by several politicians in the country ”
.
A museum funded by Belgium
"The works of art which were in this museum, in particular the famous masks of the Pende tribe, date some from 1890, others from 1900, still others from 1925,"
Joachim Kusamba told AFP, president of the civil society of Gungu indicating that
"the presumed culprits have not yet been identified"
. The museum building "
is completely gone up in smoke"
, regretted Aristotle Kibala. A video shared on social networks shows a large fire several meters high that overlooks the entire building in the middle of the night.
“It's a huge loss for the entire Congo. This museum which contained irreplaceable works not only Pende but also of other tribes
, said Franck Gatola Mungiela on his Facebook page.
The perpetrators of this despicable act cannot imagine what they themselves have lost and are causing the Congolese and our future generations to lose ”
.
A 20 by 10 meter building, the Gungu Museum was built in 2008 with funding from the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) to the tune of $ 37,000.
In July 2022, the museum was to be the main attraction of the International Gungu Festival, according to Aristotle Kibala.
