No new modern art museum in Brussels, says state secretary

A plan to create a new contemporary art museum in the canal zone in Brussels appeared to have come to an end yesterday, after state secretary Elke Sleurs said that the existing modern art collection should return to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts. The statement also signalled the end of the new Fin de Siècle Museum currently on Kunstberg.

The Brussels-Capital Region wanted to build a modern art museum in the former Citroen garage on Ijzerplein, between North Station and the Basilica of Koekelberg. The museum was planned as part of a wide-ranging development of the canal area, stretching from the industrial quays opposite Tour & Taxis to the slaughterhouses in Anderlecht.

The art for the new museum, however, is the responsibility of Sleurs, state secretary of science policy, a portfolio that covers the functioning of the Royal Library, the Royal Museum for Central Africa, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, the Jubelpark complex and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, among others.

The fine arts museum’s modern art collection vanished into storage when the existing museum closed for repairs in 2011. Since then, the Capital-Region has been working on a plan for a new museum. But according to Sleurs, the federal government’s plan has always been to return the collection to its original home in the fine arts museum.

That presents Brussels with another problem: the Fin de Siècle Museum currently occupies part of the building Sleurs has in mind for the renewed modern art museum, housing the Art Nouveau collection donated by the Gillon-Crowet family to the city in lieu of inheritance tax. The Fin de Siècle Museum also displays pieces from the collection of the Muntschouwburg, as well as several federal institutions, the latter of which will have to be handed back.

The decision by Sleurs “means the death blow for the Canal Museum complex,” according to Flemish Parliament opposition spokesperson Yamila Idrissi. The region, however, could decide to carry on with talks to fill a new modern art museum, partly with the Gillon-Crowet collection and possibly also with the collection of the state-owned Belfius bank.

photo: Psyche’s Wedding (1895) by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones is part of the collection of the Fin de Siècle Museum

©MRBAB/KMSKB