The Rubens House in Antwerp received its very last for a while on 8 January 2023. The closure of the museum is the starting signal for the renovation of Rubens’ greatest masterpiece: the historic artist’s home. 

The building will undergo a thorough restoration and will become more sustainable, safer and more energy efficient. In the coming years, a reception building by Robbrecht en Daem Architects will also rise sideways from Rubens House. This new entrance forms the starting point of a new and integrally accessible visitor route through the house and garden. The renovated Rubens House will be twice as large. ​

A total of 157,600 people visited the museum in 2022 and the first week of 2023. It was a particularly busy year, taking into account the maximum capacity on visitor numbers and the closure of the garden. ​

Closed for a few years

The Rubens House will be closed for the next few years. The historic artist’s home is undergoing a thorough restoration. Visitors of all ages will soon enjoy more comfort. 

A subtly built-in elevator makes the museum fully accessible to everyone. Space will be added for sanitary facilities and facilities, for presentations and for international exhibitions. 

The building will also become more sustainable, safer and more energy efficient. A new climate control system in the historic rooms protects the valuable collections. The restoration of the interior guarantees a stronger historical experience.

A brand new reception building by Robbrecht en Daem Architecten is rising sideways from Rubens’ historic house and garden. In addition to the reception, this will also include an experience centre, the new museum café, the research center and the internationally acclaimed Rubens library. This new entrance forms the starting point of an adapted visitor route through the museum and the garden.

Baroque garden

The new baroque garden will be a closed court. This museum room without a ceiling shines in every season and shows color 365 days a year thanks to the plant and color advice from Dries Van Noten.

The Rubens House is being prepared for the future. The renovated museum, including the new building, will be twice as large. The renovation and expansion are being carried out with great respect for the past and for the future. City of Antwerp invests 22.7 million euros; VISITFLANDERS 3 million euros.

“Make sure when you leave that everything is properly closed,” Peter Paul Rubens wrote in a letter from 1638 to his student Lucas Faydherbe. With that advice, the Rubens House is closed.

City of Antwerp Alderman for Culture Nabilla Ait Daoud (N-VA): “The closure of the Rubens House is a milestone. With the total renovation we are tackling the major challenges of the current infrastructure. Past and innovation come together here in the future; just as Rubens himself would have thought of it today.” 

Art and museums in Antwerp

• Inside the KMSKA or Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
• VIDEO | Inside the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of Refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• 2023 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2022 in the museums of Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• ANTWERP | Garden of renovated Rubens House to be open air exhibition space.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2021.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2022.
• ‘Freight’ and ‘Listen’ exhibitions at MAS in Antwerp.
• ‘Masculinities: Liberation through Photography’ exhibition at FOMU, Antwerp’s photography museum.
• ANTWERP | Goshka Macuga’s ‘Figures of Absence’ honours underrepresented women in public domain art.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ‘Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability’ exhibition at Antwerp’s M HKA modern arts museum.
• ANTWERP | Geert De Weyer Gallery, a space for illustrators’ and comic strip authors’ art.
• ‘Congoville’: contemporary artists walk colonial paths at Middelheim Museum in Antwerp.
• Antwerp’s Letterenhuis ft. Paul van Ostaijen exhibition.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp reopens on 4 and 5 September 2021 with ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus will exhibit long-lost illustration by Rubens: ‘Opticorum Libri Sex’.
• ‘100 X Congo’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp.
• ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition, Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS), Antwerp, 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• REVIEW | ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp from 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• ‘On the road’ at Museum Plantin-Moretus.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh is expanding into former District Hall.
• Antwerp’s Middelheim Museum rearranges sculpture park by the end of 2023.