Archives des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique / Archief van de Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België

The Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique / Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) was created by virtue of the consular decree of 14 Fructidor year IX, better known as the Chaptal decree. The museum opened to the public two years later and Guillaume Bosschaert was its first curator. The museum, owned by the city of Brussels since 1811, was ceded to the newly created Belgian state according to the agreement of 31 December 1842. In 1907 the first ‘society of friends’ was created: les Amis des Musées royaux de l’État à Bruxelles, counting among its members many dignitaries and personalities of the Jewish financial and industrial elite, including baron Léon Cassel, Léon Lambert, Franz Philippson and Jules Philippson. In 1919, after the First World War, the Museum was directed by chief curator Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert. Today, the collections of the MRBAB include over 20000 works of art. Today, the MRBAB comprises the Old Masters Museum, the Modern Museum, the Wiertz Museum, Meunier Museum, Magritte Museum and the Fin-de-Siècle Museum.

https://www.fine-arts-museum.be/en/the-institution/historical-background

For a more detailed history (until 2002), see Van Kalck, Michèle (ed.), Les Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique : Deux siècles d’histoire, 2 vols., Brussels, Éditions Racine, 2003.

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are one of the federal scientific institutions reporting to the minister in charge of research and science policy.

Science Policy, as the programming federal public service (SPP), coordinates the various federal science policies, oversees federal scientific institutions and develops various research activities in all areas of federal competence, including art and culture.

www.belspo.be

The Archives of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (ARMFAB) are tasked with conserving, communicating and promoting the use of the institution's historical archives (documents produced or received by the institution in and through the exercise of its functions and activities), as well as a small number of archive funds of organisations or private individuals historically linked to the institution.

The Archives of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (ARMFAB) are tasked with conserving, communicating and promoting the use of the institution's historical archives (documents produced or received by the institution in and through the exercise of its functions and activities), as well as a small number of archive funds of organisations or private individuals historically linked to the institution.

In all, the Archives hold just over 600 linear metres of documentary material.

The earliest records date from the late 18th century and are slightly pre-date the consular decree of 14 Fructidor IX (the 'Chaptal Decree') creating the Museum of Brussels.

The Archives do not contain:

• the Museum's working files (the individual documentary files, one per artwork): they are part of the institution’s archives but are located in the conservation departments

• publications, with rare exceptions.

The Guide to the ARMFAB funds and collections (soon available on its site in a pdf) provides summaries of the different funds and collections, mentioning for each of them, at a minimum, the precise name of the fund/collection, the extreme dates (period covered), the size in running metres, a brief description of the archives producer, a brief description of the content, any earlier research tools (records-diaries of correspondence, files, lists) or modern research tools (inventories), and information on communicability.

https://historicalarchives.fine-arts-museum.be/

This content does not yet exist in English. In the meantime, you can still browse or search through the archival fonds and collections. Please note, however, that the language of the documents is mostly French and that the inventories are also written in French only.

Publications: see here