Why did it take so long? That is the pressing question about the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, commonly known as KMSKA, which finally reopened at the end of September after an 11-year renovation costing over €100mn.
The answer is that this monumental building, constructed in the 1880s as a grand temple for the arts worthy of a wealthy port on the banks of the River Scheldt, required some serious work to bring it up to 21st-century standards. Out came the asbestos and in went the climate-control systems. Gallery walls have been assiduously painted in olive green and Pompeian red, while a new floor mosaic has been laid down using 60 types of marble. The total exhibition space has been increased by 40 per cent by deftly inserting lofty modern galleries into internal courtyards, their floors so gleamingly white it is like being in an ice rink.
The result is a magnificent new home for the world’s largest collection of Flemish art, one that Luk Lemmens, chair of KMSKA’s board of directors, believes sets it on a par with art heavyweights such as the Rijksmuseum and Prado.