Vue lecture

Anonymous painting bought at auction on ‘hunch’ identified as two-in-one Rubens

Par :Philip Oltermann European culture editor

9 janvier 2026 à 14:53

Study of man often featured in works by the Flemish master reveals hidden painting of woman beneath model’s beard

Is it a bald elderly man with a big bushy beard and a wine-addled stare? Or a friendly young woman with flowing locks and a crown of braids?

To Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller, an answer to that question mattered less than the fact that this particular take on the duck-rabbit optical illusion was painted by one Peter Paul Rubens.

Artists decry dismantling of Belgium’s oldest contemporary art museum

The Guardian

Par :Philip Oltermann European culture editor

6 janvier 2026 à 18:30

Cost-saving plan to transfer Antwerp museum’s entire collection to another city described as ‘simply insane’

Prominent artists have spoken out against an “arbitrary reshaping” of Belgium’s museum landscape, as the Flanders region seeks to cut public spending by dismantling the country’s oldest contemporary art museum and transplanting its entire collection to another city.

At a press conference in Antwerp on Tuesday, the directors of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), which was founded in 1985, decried what they called the “flagrant illegalities” of the museum sector shake-up, which is due to be debated in Belgium’s parliament on Friday.