Discover Benelux | Culture | Royal Museums of Art and History
HEROES AND RICHES:
Two exhibitions to look out for at the Art & History Museum, Brussels TEXT: SIMON WILLMORE | PHOTOS: ROYAL MUSEUMS OF ART AND HISTORY
Two very different, yet equally fascinating exhibitions, are on display at the Art & History Museum in Brussels, formerly the Cinquantenaire Museum, this season. First up, after an investment of 520,000 euros, one of the most famous Belgian Art Nouveau works – by architect Victor Horta – has been brought back to life. Open to the public since 29 November 2017, the original Art Nouveau and Art Deco interior of the elite Wolfers Frères jewellery shop can now be revisited, 105 years after the official inauguration of the business. 94 | Issue 57 | September 2018
Just as the Belgian nouveaux riches could walk around the real shop at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century, museum visitors will once again be able to admire the property in its reconstructed form, thanks to a painstaking historical study into the showcases, counters and even the doors of the shop, as Horta designed them in his time. The red Cuban mahogany furniture has been refurbished; the dark green velvet of the soft furnishings has been rewoven; the patina of the bronze decorations has been refreshed. “The museum curator had done much research in the archives in order to find
the right furniture – with the right colours and the right atmosphere – to do the project justice,” says Denis Perin, communications manager at the Art & History Museum. “The furniture and the jewellery are just small examples of the extraordinary work done by Horta and Wolfers, and cannot be missed.” When architect Horta took on the project in 1909, he already enjoyed international renown, thanks largely to successes with other commercial buildings, including Le Grand Bazar in Brussels in 1903. However, he is perhaps best known as the man who led the dawn of the Art Nouveau era, par-