Anastasia Petrovskaya from The Art Partners contributed this article to Art Decision.
Belgium has a remarkable number of private collections across the country: from Brussels and Antwerp, to Ghent and Charleroi. For this list, we rooted out the most exciting and unconventional collections to see while visiting the Belgian capital.
Vanhaerents Collection
Assembled by Walter Vanhaerents and his children, Els and Joost, this collection has a comprehensive range of contemporary art with both established and emerging artists. It occupies a three-floor industrial premises (a sanitary warehouse from 1926), which was repurposed into a loft exhibition, storage and office space by architects Robbrecht en Daem. On the occasion of collection’s ten-year anniversary, the family decided to radically change the exhibition of the works and adopted the format of a viewing depot that naturally lets aesthetics and functionality intertwine. Visitors now can see works exposed in the crates positioned next to each other, which also highlights issues of conservation, storage and exhibiting that any collector might face.
Available to access only 10 week per year, check dates in advance of a trip.
Charles Riva collection
Charles Riva has been a collector and art dealer for the last 20 years (he had his first gallery in 1997). The collection’s focus is primarily American artists and was opened to the public in 2009. There are three separate, yet interlinked, spaces in the center of Brussels which complement and enhance the experience of the art collection. Firstly, there is the traditional gallery-setting Charles Riva Collection with Riva’s apartment upstairs that offers an opportunity to see artists in a private context, as well as Riva Project which solely dedicates its interiors to the presentation of sculptures. From time to time, Riva hosts bespoke art dinners for his friends and special guests at the apartment in an intimate and personal ambience.
Servais Family Collection
Coming from investment banking background, Alain Servais has been dedicated to collecting art since 1997. Within 20 years, the collection has expanded to several hundred works by an international roster of artists. It is showcased in a former factory known as the Loft, located in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood. Servais lived there for ten years before moving into a house in the upscale Uccle area, which also gives a different perception when visiting the factory – it feels like the property and the collection itself now live a separate life from the owner, though evolving and changing under his careful gaze. There is no overarching theme, but there is a characteristic that draws one’s attention: you won’t come across a lot of paintings, but certainly plenty of thought-provoking and cutting-edge artworks.
The exact address is given by RSVP at collection.servais@gmail.com
ING Art Center
The ING Belgium collection was initiated as a private collection at the start of the 1960s, and was assembled by Léon Lambert, President of Banque Bruxelles Lambert until 1987. Today the collection is being exhibited through temporary exhibitions honouring artists such as James Ensor, Peter Carl Fabergé and Yves Saint Laurent, or through thematical expositions such as those concerning Pop Art in Belgium.
FdG Project
FdG project is the collection of Frédéric de Goldschmidt, which he started in late 2008. The space is by appointment only and is located at Rue de Barchon 11, 1000 Brussels.
Contact email: fdegoldschmidtcollection@gmail.com
The Art Partners, founded by Anastasia Petrovskaia and Maria Korolevskaya, is an integrated office for international art collectors that offers a wide range of specialized services, providing flexible solutions and a personalized approach to each individual client. With its main office in London, they operate between several locations that include Zurich, Paris, New York and Los Angeles.
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