Experience

ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh reunited with family residence

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The Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp is expanding. The adjacent corner house – once the parental home of art collector Fritz Mayer van den Bergh – and a new building will become part of the museum in the future. The museum will close its doors to the public on 22 April 2025. In the spring of 2026, municipal real estate agency AG Vespa will start the renovation works and the reopening is scheduled for 2029. 

During the closure, an important part of the collection – including the many masterpieces – will remain visible to the Antwerp and (inter)national public in domestic and foreign museums.

The preliminary design for the renovation and expansion of Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp is ready. The adjacent city palace, which housed the district hall of Antwerp until 2021, will become part of the museum. In the future, the museum visit will start in this former home of the Mayer van den Bergh family. 

The Board of Regents, which owns the collection and the historic museum building, and the city of Antwerp are joining forces for this ambitious restoration and renovation project. 

The city is asking the Flemish Government for an investment subsidy. Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven Architects BV is responsible for the design and works together with the British architectural firm of Julian Harrap, specialized in the restoration of historical heritage.

Annick De Ridder (N-VA), alderman of Heritage and chairperson AG Vespa: “Our rich Antwerp history is heading for a new bright future. Now that the preliminary design has been approved, a very important step has been taken towards a beautifully renovated and expanded Museum Mayer van den Bergh. The works will start in 2026 and run until 2028, after which the climate installation can be tested and the collection can begin moving. We are already looking forward to 2029 when the life’s work of Fritz Mayer van den Bergh will shine again in an equally beautiful museum.”

Unique heritage story

Henriëtte Mayer van den Bergh, Fritz’s mother, had the private museum built in 1901-1904. Fritz was an enthusiastic art connoisseur who amassed a collection full of masterpieces in barely ten years. After his sudden death, mother Henriëtte decisively realized her son’s unfulfilled wish: the construction of his own museum. The City of Antwerp and a Board of Regents have jointly managed the building and collection since 1951.

Director of Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Carl Depauw: “With this extension – where house and museum are reunited – the Museum Mayer van den Bergh makes an appointment with history, with a promising look at the future.”

Reuniting the historical museum with the former home of the Mayer van den Bergh family is a unique opportunity. The special heritage story of Fritz and Henriëtte is thus fully realized. 

Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven Architects is restoring the vacant corner building into an attractive city palace, and bringing the current museum back as much as possible to the situation of 1904, the year it opened its doors. The unique historical atmosphere of the museum is cherished and enhanced in this way, while contemporary insights and techniques ensure the best possible storage and presentation conditions for the collection. 

With more than 60 masterpieces on the Flemish masterpieces list, Museum Mayer van den Bergh has an exceptionally high-quality art collection.

More space, more comfort

With the additional new construction at the rear of the museum, Museum Mayer van den Bergh will have the space to receive more visitors in comfort. 

A hospitable reception with a museum shop, a semi-public courtyard, rooms for temporary exhibitions, an educational space and a brand new visitor trail ensure a high-quality museum experience, without detracting from the intimate homely atmosphere that the museum has exuded since 1904.

Collection remains visible

The renovation work will start in the spring of 2026. The museum will close on 22 April 2025, immediately after the Easter holidays, and the reopening is scheduled for 2029. 

During the closure, an important part of the collection – including its many masterpieces – will remain visible to the Antwerp and (inter)national audience.

In the summer of 2025, the temporary exhibition ‘Public Favorites‘ will open in the nearby Maagdenhuis. 43 personal stories from the Mayer van den Bergh collection. 

Together with city residents and visitors, the Museum Mayer van den Bergh searches for personal and surprising stories that transcend the art historical value of the collection and broaden our view of Fritz’s collection. 

At the same time, many Flemish masterpieces – including the ‘Dulle Griet‘ (‘Mad Meg’) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the medieval ‘Christ-John Group‘ by Master Heinrich von Konstanz – remain on display for visitors from home and abroad.

Mad Meg.

Alderman for Culture Nabilla Ait Daoud (N-VA): “Museum Mayer van den Bergh has a world-class masterpiece on display with Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s ‘Dulle Griet’, but the museum remains a hidden gem in our country, with almost 60 works of art on the Flemish Masterpieces List. With the planned expansion, the Mayer van den Bergh collection will no longer be hidden. The museum will be able to focus even more on intimacy and authenticity, which will only make the experience more intense for the visitor works accessible and visible, including with the ‘Publiekslievelingen‘ project, where Antwerp residents make their choice of works that appeal to them most personally.”

In addition, a sophisticated loan policy keeps masterpieces from Fritz’s collection visible in other (national and international) museums. 

For example, Museum Mayer van den Bergh collaborates with the prestigious Musée de Cluny. Part of the so-called ‘Micheli Collection‘ – Fritz’s largest and most expensive art purchase ever – can be seen in Paris from the end of 2027.

Chairman of the Board of Regents, Thomas Leysen: “This expansion is fully worthy of the legacy of Henriëtte Mayer van den Bergh, because with this collaboration between the city and the Board of Regents, this unique museum and its beautiful collection nestles among leading and high-profile collectors’ museums worldwide “.

Stories wanted

In preparation for the exhibition ‘Public Favorites‘, Museum Mayer van den Bergh is launching an open call. Which collection item does the public find – for personal reasons – indispensable in the city during the museum closure and should therefore not be put into storage? 

Which work of art or object from the collection do they have a special bond with? Antwerp residents and museum visitors are invited to submit their personal stories via the museum’s website or in the story box at reception. 

Art and museums in Antwerp