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Fire causes no damage to treasures in arts museum in downtown Moscow

The fire has been completely extinguished

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. Firefighters have protected from fire art treasures preserved at the Private Collections Museum, part of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Main Moscow Department Ilya Denisov told TASS.

"The firefighting units’ leader made a right decision on positioning his team members and using special equipment," he said, adding that the Pushkin Museum’s administration had praised the firefighters. "Thanks to the administration’s efforts, visitors and staff members were evacuated in time," Denisov said.

According to him, experts will now try to figure out the reason for the fire. 

музей изобразительных искусств им. Пушкина #пожар #музей

Публикация от Iva Braun (@evazzzeva)

The fire has been completely extinguished.

The work to extinguish the fire was completed at 16:01 Moscow time, a source in the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Main Moscow Department told TASS.

The fire started on the roof of a two-story building which houses the Private Collections Museum. The emergency sources said that the thermal insulation put under the roof had started to burn.

Firefighting activities involved 10 teams. More than 30 people were evacuated from the building, no casualties have been reported.

The museum’s website says that its main exhibition is closed until 2019, as the building is planned to be used as a repository for the Pushkin Museum’s collection.

The exposition consists of items from more than 30 private collections donated to the institution since the 1980s. The museum’s collection currently includes over 7,000 pieces of Russian and Western European art from the 15th to the 20th century, including paintings, graphic works, sculptures, fine art and craft items and photos.