Art & History Museum

The Art & History Museum (French: Musée Art & Histoire; Dutch: Museum Kunst & Geschiedenis) is a public museum of antiquities, ethnographic, and decorative arts located in the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark in Brussels, Belgium. It is one of the constituent parts of the Royal Museums of Art and History (RMAH) and ranks among the largest art museums in Europe. Formerly known as the Cinquantenaire Museum (French: Musée du Cinquantenaire; Dutch: Jubelpark Museum) until 2018, the institution occupies a floor area of 60,000 square meters, of which 22,000 square meters constitute exhibition space, and holds more than half a million objects spanning from prehistory to the present day. Its collections encompass national archaeology, classical antiquity, non-European civilisations, and European decorative arts, with internationally renowned holdings in tapestries, altarpieces, lace, ceramics, Egyptian art, pre-Columbian art, and Japanese prints.

The museum's origins trace back to the collections assembled during the reigns of the Dukes of Burgundy and the subsequent Habsburg archdukes in Brussels. These early collections, primarily weapons and curiosities housed in the arsenal near the Coudenberg Palace, were famed throughout Europe; Albrecht Dürer recorded his admiration after visiting in 1520. Following the fire of the Coudenberg Palace in 1731, the arsenal and its collections survived, and by around 1770 they were moved to a new building called the Heraldic Chamber. After the Battle of Fleurus in 1794, the most valuable pieces were transferred by the Austrians to Vienna.

In 1835, the Musée d'armes anciennes, d'armures, d'objets d'art et de numismatique was established to promote the study of history and arts. The artillery collection of the Ministry of War was added in 1837. On 25 March 1847, by royal decree, the institution was named the Musée royal d'Armures, d'Antiquités et d'Artillerie and installed in the restored Halle Gate (Porte de Hal/Hallepoort), which had been purchased from the city of Brussels. The collections grew through archaeological excavations, donations from wealthy Belgians, and acquisitions from financially distressed church fabrics and monasteries. Notable early acquisitions included Gustave Hagemans's collection of antiquities in 1861, medieval treasures from the Soltykoff collection sale in Paris the same year, 77 Greek and Etruscan vases from the collection of Marquis Giampietro Campana in 1863, and a 200-object Borneo collection donated by Doctor Conrad Helfrich-Couvreur in 1864.

By 1889, the Halle Gate had become too small, and the collections were relocated to the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark, though the armour and weapons remained at the gate. The Cinquantenaire site had served as an army parade ground until the 1880 National Exhibition, when the large iron, glass, and steel Cinquantenaire Palace was constructed with a military museum in the north wing. A Royal Decree of 30 May 1879 had allocated 1,800,000 Belgian francs for construction, initially intended for the 1880 National Exhibition of Belgian Art and Industry products. The buildings were not final, and construction resumed for the 1888 international competition of sciences and industry and the 1897 universal exhibition. Budgets were voted in 1901 for the museum's relocation, and in 1905 the first collections moved into the south wing of the Halles Bordiau under the name Pavillon de l'Antiquité.

The interwar period saw considerable growth through Belgian scientific expeditions, notably to Apamea in Syria, Egypt under Egyptologist Jean Capart, and Easter Island in 1936, as well as excavations across Belgium. A new west wing was built in the mid-20th century to house classical antiquity collections.

On the evening of 19 January 1946, a short circuit caused a devastating fire that destroyed an entire section of the museum. Reconstruction took twenty years, respecting the original volumetry, color, and materials; the structural work was completed by 1958 for the Universal Exhibition that year. The museum was renamed the Art & History Museum in May 2018.

The museum's collections are organised into four principal divisions: national archaeology, classical antiquity, non-European civilisations, and European decorative arts. The holdings originate from all continents and range from prehistory to the present, with particular depth in Belgian archaeological material, ancient Mediterranean civilisations, Asian arts, Islamic art, and European applied arts from the Mosan period through the 20th century.

The national archaeology section covers prehistory, Gallo-Roman Belgium, and Merovingian civilisation, presenting tools, vases, jewellery, and funerary objects contextualised through models and reconstructions. The classical antiquity division encompasses ancient Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman civilisations, including substantial holdings of cylinder-seals, Luristan bronzes, Greek vases, Etruscan mirrors, and Roman marble busts. The non-European civilisations department features extensive collections from China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, and Indonesia, as well as pre-Columbian and later ethnographic materials from the Americas, and archaeological and ethnographic objects from Polynesia and Micronesia. The European decorative arts collection is especially rich in works from the Southern Netherlands, with celebrated ensembles of Mosan art, late medieval sculpture, tapestries, European glass, ceramics, and lace, alongside costumes, textiles, metalwork, furniture, jewelry, scientific instruments, clocks, carriages, and sledges. Notable also are Art Nouveau and Art Deco objects, and the museum maintains one of the few active cast workshops in the world, producing plaster casts of famous artworks.

Among the museum's most celebrated individual works are several pieces of exceptional significance. The Egyptian collection, comprising more than 11,000 pieces, features the Lady of Brussels, the relief of Queen Tiyi (circa 1398-1338 BC), and a colossal head of a pharaoh from the Ptolemaic era (circa 323-30 BC), alongside a mastaba, mummies, and sarcophagi illustrating ancient funerary customs. The Roman collections include the world-famous bronze statue of Emperor Septimius Severus and remarkable mosaic floors from Apamea, Syria, notably a hunting scene from the palace of the governor of the province of Syria Secunda, as well as part of the Great Colonnade. The Greek collection is distinguished by its comprehensive vase collection spanning the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period. The museum also holds the large-scale model of 4th-century AD Rome by French architect Paul Bigot, one of the rare surviving examples of this work. From non-European civilisations, the Pou Hakanononga, a colossal sculpture of the tuna god brought from Easter Island in 1935 by the Belgian training ship Mercator, stands as a centerpiece of the Polynesian and Micronesian collections. The Japanese print collection enjoys world fame, and the museum's tapestry, altarpiece, and lace collections are internationally renowned. The museum also possesses an extensive collection of molds for producing plaster casts of famous artworks.

The museum is situated in the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark in Brussels, within a majestic building complex created under Leopold II. The site originated as an army parade ground before the construction of the Cinquantenaire Palace for the 1880 National Exhibition. The original buildings, designed in iron, glass, and steel, were not intended as permanent museum structures; further construction occurred for the 1888 international competition and the 1897 universal exhibition.

The museum occupies the Halles Bordiau, with its first collections installed in the south wing in 1905. The building was soon described as being in a deplorable state, and renovation plans proposed in 1936 were unsuccessful. The 1946 fire necessitated a twenty-year reconstruction that preserved the original volumetry, color, and materials, with structural completion by 1958. A new west wing was added in the mid-20th century to accommodate classical antiquity collections. The overall complex, with its 60,000 square meters of floor space, constitutes one of the largest museum buildings in Europe.

The Art & History Museum is located in the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark in Brussels, Belgium. It is served by Brussels-Schuman railway station and by the metro stations Schuman and Merode on lines 1 and 5. As a public museum and one of the constituent parts of the Royal Museums of Art and History (RMAH), it operates as a federal institution under the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO). The museum maintains an active website at https://www.artandhistory.museum for visitor information.