The unique desk of the late general secretary of Congo Free State and right-hand man of King Leopold II, Edmond Van Eetvelde (1852-1925), has been rediscovered by a Dutch art historian and collector.
The pièce de resistance from the office of the Belgian diplomat, made by architect Victor Horta, is now once again on display in the place where it belongs.
This was reported by State Secretary Ans Persoons (Vooruit) on Monday morning during a tour of his office in the Hotel Van Eetvelde in Brussels.
The desk and study are a work of art by the world-famous architect Victor Horta, who started building the Art Nouveau villa on Avenue Palmerston in Brussels in 1895.
Disappearing desk
After Van Eetvelde's death in December 1925, the wooden Art Nouveau desk disappeared from the deceased diplomat's home.
The desk was lost for a century, but was recently rediscovered in the Netherlands.
100 years after the furniture's disappearance, the desk is returning to the study in the Hotel van Eetvelde in its original state.
This is thanks to the Dutch art historian and collector Frederik Erens, who found the desk at an antiques fair, hidden among 20 other desks in a similar style.
Dutch historian and collector Frederik Erens pictured at the restored office of Edmond van Eetvelde at the Hotel Van Eetvelde. Credit: Belga / Timon Ramboer
Erens, a connoisseur who attended the reopening of the Hotel van Eetvelde in 2023, recognised the desk almost immediately by its Horta handles. At first he thought it was a kind of copy of the original desk, but after a thorough inspection the man turned out to have historical gold in his hands.
The desk now once again stands in the place for which it was once custom-made. The office of the Belgian diplomat from colonial times, Edmond Van Eetvelde, has now been fully restored to its former glory now that the 'missing link' has returned.
