Some 705,450 people walked through the doors of the four Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium last year. As major exhibitions wrap up, the Royal Museums are focusing on extensive renovation plans.
The number of visitors last year was lower than in 2023, when 751,329 people visited the museums. However, it is an improvement compared to 2022, which saw 652,249 visitors.
For the first time since the pandemic, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts have nearly regained pre-Covid attendance levels, excluding the unusual peak of one million entries in 2019.
In 2024, the museums operated with one less facility: the Fin-de-Siècle Museum, which closed its doors on 8 January. This space, dedicated to the 1900s and located on Rue de la Régence, was temporarily converted into a storage area as part of the site's redevelopment.
Visiting the Fin-de-Siècle Museum. Credit: Belga / Laurie Dieffembacq.
Consequently, only four of the six Royal Museums were open to the public: the Magritte Museum, the Old Masters Museum near Central Station, the Wiertz Museum near Luxembourg Station, and the Meunier Museum near Bois de la Cambre.
However, the open museums were able to maintain or increase their attendance, according to the Royal Museums. "The quality of the programme, the institution's reputation, and the dynamism of the collections contributed to this figure, along with the centenary of surrealism celebrations," said the Royal Museums.
From February to July, they hosted 'IMAGINE! 100 Years of International Surrealism', a travelling exhibition created in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The exhibition showcased around 140 works by artists like Dalí, Dorothea Tanning and Paul Delvaux.
A press visit to the 'Magritte: The Immersive Experience'. Credit: Belga / Stephanie Linsingh
The national collections also travelled to Mons for 'Surrealism: Disrupting Reality' at the Contemporary Art Centre, as well as to Ostend and Antwerp for the 75th anniversary of James Ensor's death, and to Sydney for a René Magritte retrospective. In total, the Royal Museums lent 218 works to partner institutions.
In 2025, after the conclusion of the current major exhibitions the focus will shift to renovations. The Royal Museums will prepare for extensive renovations in 2026, including the main entrance hall and two exhibition floors in the main building on Rue de la Régence, as well as the roof of the extension located on Place du Musée.
"The final goal, in the medium term (partially by 2026 and fully by 2030), is to present the entire permanent collection in one museum," the institution noted. The journey from the 15th to the 21st century will be "less compartmentalised," they promised.
