The police conducted on Tuesday morning a search of the Grand Curtius Museum in Liège to investigate whether or not the arms collection in the museum is being stored correctly.
An examining magistrate and 30 policemen were involved in the search, the Liège public prosecutor confirmed.
The intention of the operation was to verify whether the security conditions for the museum's arms collection were being met, as well as whether a law that regulates economic and individual activities with weapons was being respected.
The policemen "were particularly interested in the site of the reserve of weapons collections," explained Liège alderman in charge of culture, tourism and interculturality, Jean-Pierre Hupkens.
In addition, the investigation was based on suspicions that theft of the weapons in the arms collection was possible, according to RTBF.
The Grand Curtis Museum inherited a large arms collection, which includes historic firearms and knives, from the former Liège Arms Museum.
A large part of the collection can be found on the first floor of the Curtius Palace, located beside the Grand Curtius Museum. This section of the collection contains 600 different types of weapons.
The museum hopes to develop its arms collection further and to display up to 3,000 weapons.
Evie McCullough
The Brussels Times
