The general inventory of works is now online !
Published on 09.04.2025
On the occasion of the International Day of Provenance Research on 9 April 2025, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are publishing online the first volumes of the digitised version of their art inventory (until 1960).
On the occasion of the International Day of Provenance Research on 9 April 2025, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are publishing online the first volumes of the digitised version of their art inventory (until 1960).
This publication embodies the desire for transparency about public collections and their provenance. It is in line with the principles of the Washington Conference on Nazi-Confiscated Art (1998), reaffirmed in 2024 in the Best Practices for Restitution of Nazi-Confiscated Art, and accompanies the ProvEnhance research project (2023-2027), which is studying the question of the provenance of works related to the Second World War (acquisitions 1933-1960).
All works of art entering the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts must be recorded in the inventory, identified (author, title, type and dimensions) and accompanied by information on their origin (date of acquisition, type of acquisition, name of the last owner) and, where applicable, their purchase price. The digitised art inventory provides a chronological perspective on the provenance of works of art that entered the museum during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, including the immediate post-war period.
This project was made possible by the DIGIT-04 programme, funded by the Belgian Federal Science Policy (BELSPO) and with the support of the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), which digitised the first 6 volumes of the art inventory of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium between September 2024 and February 2025.
Discover the art inventory Learn more about ProvEnhance
The International Provenance Research Day is an initiative of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.
