Brazil’s National Museum was gutted by a massive fire Sunday night in Rio de Janeiro that destroyed most of the 20 million pieces inside, including some of the region’s oldest human remains and Egyptian mummies.

The loss of history was described as a "lobotomy of the Brazilian memory" by a former environment minister. The museum, which celebrated its 200th anniversary this year, is the biggest collection of natural history in the region.

TV footage late Sunday showed two huge columns of smoke burning on either end of the museum, trailing up into the night sky. Most of the windows of the 19th century building were lit up by the flames within. On Monday morning, firefighters – who battled the blaze throughout the night – laid out the remains of what had been salvaged, but it will be weeks before the scale of the loss can be known.

Officials have blamed the origins of the blaze, which began after the museum had been closed to the public, on neglect and poor funding. The museum is entitled to a maintenance budget of $128,000, according to reports, of which it hasn’t received the full amount since 2014. It received $13,000 from the Brazilian government this year, reported National Geographic.