Police Plan to Seize a Rotterdam Museum’s 16th-Century Altarpiece Fragments After a Church Claimed They Were Stolen

Police have said they plan to
seize six religious sculptures that are on display at an art museum
in the Belgian town of Leuven. 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.  

For now the woodcarvings remain
on view in an exhibition at the museum, M Leuven, which is
dedicated to the Flemish Northern Renaissance sculptor Jan Bormon
and his sons. But they are subject to a “soft” or administrative
seizure, which means that after the exhibition closes on January
26, they could ultimately be returned to the church or to
Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, which loaned the
sculptures to the Leuven exhibition. (Immediately following the
exhibition they are slated to be restored at the Royal
Institute for Cultural Heritage.)

Although M Leuven knew about the
sculptures’ 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.”

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
and Son.” The church had 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, told the Belgian broadcaster
RTBF, “You do not loan works to people who own them.” He added
that it is hiring a lawyer.

The director of the Boijmans, Sjarel Ex, told 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.

The post Police Plan to Seize a Rotterdam Museum’s
16th-Century Altarpiece Fragments After a Church Claimed They Were
Stolen appeared first on artnet News.