Palais des Beaux-Arts de Liège

The Palais des Beaux-Arts de Liege is an art museum situated at the center of the Parc de la Boverie on the Outremeuse island in the Belgian city of Liege. Originally constructed for the 1905 Liege International exposition, it is the sole surviving structure from that event. Over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the building transitioned from an exhibition hall into a major museum complex. Since 2016, it has housed La Boverie, a unified museum entity consolidating the city's fine arts, modern and contemporary art, prints and drawings, and Walloon art collections.

Built between 1903 and 1905, the structure was designed by architects Charles Etienne Soubre and Jean-Laurent Hasse for the 1905 Liege International. Following the exposition, the organizing committee gifted the building to the city. It became the Palais des Fetes et des Expositions, functioning as a venue for conferences, balls, banquets, salons, and major exhibitions, including a notable show on the COBRA movement in October 1951. In 1952, the city relocated its prints and drawings collection and the Walloon artistic collection into the building. When the main site of the Musee des Beaux-Arts on rue des Anglais was destroyed in the 1970s, its modern and contemporary art collections moved into the Palais, prompting its renaming as the Musee d'art moderne. The Walloon art collection departed in 1980 for a complex in the Feronstree et Hors-Chateau district designed by Henri Bonhomme. A major renovation from 1988 to 1993 restored the open space of the original 1905 design, and the institution reopened as the Musee d'art moderne et d'art contemporain (MAMAC). In late 2011, MAMAC closed, and its collections joined the Fonds ancien, the prints and drawings, and the Walloon art museum at the Ilot Saint-Georges complex to form a single entity named the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Liege, or BAL. On February 28, 2016, this museum closed, and the entire collection was transferred back to the Palais, reopening as La Boverie on May 5, 2016.

The museum's holdings encompass a broad spectrum of visual arts, integrating several formerly distinct city collections. These include the Cabinet des estampes et des dessins, the Fonds ancien, the Walloon artistic collection, and the modern and contemporary art collections formerly under MAMAC. This consolidation provides a comprehensive overview of fine arts in Liege, ranging from historical prints and drawings to regional Walloon art and international modern and contemporary movements.

The Palais des Beaux-Arts is a neoclassical building influenced by the architecture of the era of Leopold II. Its main facade, which faces the Meuse River, features a semicircular forecourt with three bays. These are surmounted by three allegorical bas-reliefs by sculptor Oscar Berchmans representing Painting, Architecture, and Sculpture. The building underwent a significant renovation from 1988 to 1993 that restored the open spatial qualities of the 1905 layout. A second major renovation and expansion occurred between November 4, 2013, and the end of 2015. This project, which cost 25 million euros, included the construction of a new wing on the Derivation side designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti, increasing the exhibition space by 1,000 square meters.

The museum is located in the Parc de la Boverie in Liege, Belgium. Since May 5, 2016, the Palais has operated as La Boverie, the primary fine arts museum for the city, uniting the formerly dispersed municipal art collections under one roof.