Police Seize Sculptures from a Belgian Museum After a Church Complained About Its Missing Art

Police have “seized” six
religious sculptures that are on display at an art museum in
Belgium. The authorities acted following a complaint by a Belgian
church that has long sought to reclaim the fragments of a
16th-century altarpiece, which were stolen at the outbreak of World
War I.  

The sculptures remain on view in
an exhibition at M Leuven dedicated to the Flemish Northern
Renaissance sculptor Jan Bormon and his sons. The wooden sculptures
are on loan from Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van
Beuningen.

Although M Leuven knew about
their history, the seizure was unexpected. “We are surprised by the complaint,”
said the museum’s chair, Denise Vandevoort, in a
statement. “Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Church Fabric
Committee of Boussu have been negotiating about these altarpiece
fragments for years,” Vandevoort added.

The head of the museum’s Old
Masters department, Peter Carpreau, also said M Leuven had complied
with all international regulations for the loan. “[We have] been
involved in hundreds of exhibition loans over the past decade and
this is the first time that anything like this has happened,”
Carpreau added.

Members of the Church of Saint
Gaugericus in Boussu-lez-Mons complained to the Belgian authorities
after learning that the statues were part of the exhibition “Borman
& Son.” The show
appears to have been a final straw for the church, which has been
in talks with the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen for several years
regarding a possible long-term loan of the altarpiece fragments
back to the church. But the church’s treasurer, Michel
Raquet, tells the Belgian broadcaster
RTBF, “You do not loan works to people who own them.” He adds
that it is hiring a lawyer.

For now the woodcarvings are subject to a “soft” or
administrative seizure, which means they will remain on view at M
Leuven until the exhibition is due to close on January 26. They are
then slated to be restored at the Royal Institute for Cultural
Heritage. It remains unclear
whether the altarpiece fragments will return afterwards to
Rotterdam, or Boussu.

The director of the Boijmans, Sjarel Ex, tells the Belgian
publication De Standaard that the statues
were donated to the museum after a Rotterdam collector, Jacques
Schoufour, purchased them in good faith in 2006.

The fragments have been
attributed to Pasquier Borman by researchers from M Leuven, the
University of Namur, the University of Toronto, KU Leuven, and the
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. The exhibition includes some
120 sculptures as well as paintings, tapestries, and works on
paper.

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a Church Complained About Its Missing Art appeared first on
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