A refurbished, more energy-efficient and more welcoming Musée Magritte will be open to the public once again from Saturday 11:00am, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, MrBAB, announced on Friday during a press tour.
The museum, located at the MrBAB complex in downtown Brussels, had been closed for six months for renovation .
The Magritte Museum collection has now returned to the MrBAB. To celebrate the reopening, a monumental apple, a recurring symbol in Magritte's work, has been placed on the roof of the newly renovated building.
The €450,000 renovation, almost entirely financed by MrBAB, had three objectives. "Firstly, we wanted to rejuvenate the museum to best preserve our precious Magritte collection," Sara Lammens, General Manager of the Royal Museums, explained on Friday. Secondly, we wanted to make a commitment to energy efficiency by renovating all the lighting, which is now 100% LED. Finally, the renovation was aimed at optimising the visitor experience."
To mark the reopening, the public will be able to discover 29 new works added to the museum's collection.
The collection can now be admired in a new décor that retains "the intimate, dreamlike atmosphere of the Musée Magritte" while featuring "renovated parquet floors, freshly painted walls, a less invasive and more durable hanging system and a renewed multimedia park," said Sara Lammens.
The MrBAB General Manager also announced in a press release that further energy-saving projects, such as the installation of photovoltaic panels, are planned for the near future.
The reception area has also been redesigned to make it more fluid. Visitors will still enter via the Musée Magritte at No. 2 Place Royale, but will now leave via the Old Masters Museum - at No. 3 Rue de la Régence.
"The Magritte Museum has become an essential part of the Belgian museum landscape," noted Secretary of State Thomas Dermine, who was present at the visit. "An institution, however popular, must never rest on its laurels. It was necessary to renovate the premises to provide a better welcome for the public, to use more energy-efficient techniques and to ensure that the works of the Belgian painter are even better preserved and showcased," he added.
Since its opening in 2009, the Musée Magritte has welcomed more than four million visitors, over 60% of them from abroad. Open to the public six days a week, it boasts the world's largest collection of works by the famous Belgian surrealist, housing over 230 works and documents, from paintings and drawings to sculptures as well as photos and films.
Before being returned to its original, refreshed and redesigned walls, the collection had been moved to a temporary exhibition room for six months.
