Image: La Boverie, Liège
La Boverie in Liège is marking the 10th anniversary of its reopening with a major exhibition devoted to the museum’s collections. '10 ans de La Boverie: Les coulisses d’une collection' runs through 23 August 2026 and brings together around 300 works in a display that combines a rediscovery of the museum’s holdings with an examination of how museums operate behind the scenes.
According to the museum’s announcement, the exhibition places works by artists including Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Ensor, Corot and Van Dongen within a broader account of collection care and research. The presentation is structured around two intertwined themes: the rediscovery of the collections and the practical workings of museums, including restorations, research, scientific analysis and storage. The museum says visitors are invited to look more closely at artworks through anecdotes and interpretive material developed for the exhibition.
The show is part of the wider 2016–2026 anniversary framing used by La Boverie for its reopening milestone. The institution presents it as an opportunity to highlight the richness of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Liège’s collections, while also opening up processes that are usually invisible to the public. That approach continues a thread already visible in the museum’s online programming, where collection history, acquisitions and conservation-related topics are given prominence alongside exhibitions.
The exhibition’s date range is listed on the museum’s ticketing page as 29 May to 23 August 2026. The public-facing newsletter also notes several related activities during the run, including a 'Slow au musée' day on 12 July with Pilates in the exhibition galleries, an olfactory visit, and a tactile tour; a 'Happy Sunday' offer on 2 August; and a family-oriented closing afternoon on 23 August. Those activities are presented as events connected to the exhibition, not as separate exhibitions.
La Boverie’s summer programme also places the anniversary show alongside an 'Œuvre du mois' display focused on private donations enriching public collections. That presentation highlights the role of gifts and bequests in the growth of museum holdings and offers a selection of boxes in different forms, materials and periods, drawn from the Sophie Moxhon donation of 1910 to the Grand Curtius. The museum uses the display to point toward the wider network of Liège institutions and collection histories that shape its cultural programming.
The newsletter further notes another free exhibition in the museum’s Espace Jeunes Artistes, 'De la Naissance du Feu' by Bilal El Alami, on view until 16 August, followed by Anna Zaboun’s 'L’Invention du Refuge' from 20 August. Separately, La Boverie has announced 'En Piste ! 2026' for 4 to 13 September, described as a carte blanche for galleries and art centres from the Liège region, with the 'Prix de la création – sélection 2025' shown concurrently in the museum’s glass atrium.
