Investigators are still trying to figure out what sparked the devastating fire at Brazil's National Museum on Sunday. The museum held Latin America's largest collection of historical and scientific artifacts. Out of the 20 million items collected by the museum, only about 10 percent survived. As CGTN's Lucrecia Franco reports from Rio de Janeiro, a lack of funding is to blame for the huge cultural loss.

It's been called a tragedy waiting to happen. The destruction of most of the collection of Brazil's treasured National Museum in Sunday's inferno.

The two-hundred-year-old building lacked a sprinkler system. And according to the museum officials, this structure and its assets were not insured.

CRISTIANE SEREJO DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BRAZIL "We did have working fire extinguishers that were verified every year. That's what we had."

Founded in 1818 and home to more than 20 million artifacts from dinosaur fossils to historical documents, the museum was suffering from funding cuts and years of neglect.

The financial situation was so dire that last year one of Rio's top samba schools, "Imperatriz Leopoldinese" decided to pay tribute to the Museum for its bicentenary anniversary.

CAHE RODRIGUES SAMBA SCHOOL CARNIVAL ARTIST " As we have a lot of media coverage during Carnival, we tried to make people and the government pay more attention to the Museum. We wanted to help."

But it was not enough to save the collection that was destroyed by flames over six long hours.

LUCRECIA FRANCO RIO DE JANEIRO "While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, museum officials say it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of urgent repairs."

According to the Museum's director of administration, the museum hadn't been receiving its allocated funding.

WAGNER MARTINS DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BRAZIL "Our annual budget of ( BRL 515,000) some 125 thousand dollars for administration and maintenance was paid in three installments and since 2015 we had been receiving only two-thirds of that amount."

On Tuesday, two days after the tragedy, the Brazilian government announced a provisional decree to spend six million dollars on projects aimed at improving security in museums.

Officials say nothing will replace the huge cultural loss, especially in a year when the museum should be celebrating its 200th anniversary, with joy, not grief. Lucrecia Franco, CGTN, Rio de Janeiro.