The MAS has become a cultural and visual icon for Antwerp several months before his inauguration. The Museum has been designed by the Dutch tandem Neutelings & Riedijk, and created with the purpose to narrate (in their collections) the long history of exchanges that linking Antwerp and its port to the world. New stories told by the traces they have left on the Belgian heritage that revolve around the city, the river and harbor. A connection as durable as the history of the city.
The Museum aan de Stroom brings together the collections from the former Museum Etnografisch the Nationaal Scheepvaartmuseum and Volkskunde museum, along with part of the Vleeshuis Museum and the collection of Dora and Paul Janssen-Arts. A collection amounting to 470,000 items, grouped into four themes universal in vertically structured scenery.
The opening is accompanied by a temporary exhibition of prestige. Masterpieces in the MAS. Five centuries of images in Antwerp has pieces from the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Van Museum and the Museum Kunst Hedendaagse Plantin-Moretus/Prentenkabinet (all in the city), in order to show the development of Western visual culture through works of old masters and contemporary artists, working in a city, Antwerp, whose splendor was held at the XVI and XVII centuries.
The exhibition will be held until December 30 of 2012. Important works of Abraham Ortelius, Adriaen Brouwer, Jacob Jordaens, James Ensor, Jan Fabre, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Jan van Eyck, Jean Fouquet, Joachim Patinir, Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas, Peter Paul Rubens, Rogier van der Weyden and Simone Martini, among others.
