Antwerp art sector takes the Flemish Community to court over the future of M HKA

24 September 2026 - 8:00 am – Press release

Seven Antwerp galleries and two art organisations have taken the Flemish Community to court over the management of M HKA and the scrapping of the new-build project. The case will be heard before the court of first instance on 26 May 2027. After months of fruitless calls for dialogue and consultation, going to court remained the only option to try to influence the situation.

From policy decision to legal action

The summons follows a long-running conflict that began with the announcements of 3 October 2025, through which Minister of Culture Caroline Gennez sought to reshape the Flemish museum landscape. Earlier, at the beginning of January, the galleries, together with Team Zuid and Museum at Risk, had already sent a formal notice of default to the Flemish Government, which went unanswered. The claimants — Keteleer Gallery, Zeno X Gallery, Gallery Sofie Van De Velde, Tim Van Laere Gallery, Art Gallery Rik Rosseels, Ibasho Gallery and Camera Work, as well as the non-profit organisations Team Zuid and Museum at Risk — argue that the termination of the new-build project and the museum reform were carried out negligently and unlawfully. Organisations that had relied in good faith for years on the previously announced policy have consequently been left out in the cold.

Objections confirmed by the Inspectorate of Finance

The claimants further argue that the decisions conflict with fundamental principles of good administration. In support of this, they refer to the two negative opinions issued by the Interfederal Corps of the Inspectorate of Finance, which found the plans financially unjustified. According to the Inspectorate, scrapping the new-build project does not even produce savings: the €130 million construction budget is simply distributed among the various majority parties. Moreover, the Inspectorate also considers the budgetary impact of the museum reform to have been assessed incompletely and too optimistically.

New management without a future outlook

Meanwhile, M HKA this week began recruiting a general director and an artistic director, two separate positions. Yet for this future leadership, it is entirely unclear what will remain after 2028, when the current transition project comes to an end. In the recent “Action Plan”, M HKA was placed, as the only museum, on a separate track, without any guarantee that its museum function will be maintained, without a clear framework and without criteria for assessing that process. According to the claimants, there is therefore no certainty whatsoever that M HKA will still be a fully fledged museum after 2028, let alone an international player.

Art in an unsuitable building

By scrapping the “established policy” concerning the new building, for which a design had already been drawn up, the museum is left in an outdated building “that does not meet the conditions required to house art”. In addition, necessary but costly improvements and maintenance have been postponed in recent years in anticipation of the promised and approved new-build project. The parties point out that sound infrastructure is an absolute basic requirement for a contemporary art museum with international ambitions. Antwerp — an internationally acclaimed art city with an academy, an avant-garde tradition, collectors and a vibrant gallery scene — thus risks losing an indispensable link in its cultural ecosystem. The fear that the museum may effectively be dismantled remains very real.