The Hôtel van Eetvelde, an emblematic art nouveau building and a masterpiece by Victor Horta, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2000.
Divided since 1921, the part of the building located at no. 2 avenue Palmerston reverted to public ownership in July 2022 following its acquisition by the Brussels Capital Region. This extension, built in 1899, houses the remarkable ceremonial office of Edmond van Eetvelde, who was then the general secretary of the Independent State of the Congo. It has now been restored to its original state as part of Urban’s cultural policy to preserve its movable heritage.
Edmond van Eetvelde’s study is one of the best-preserved sets of integrated furniture designed by Horta and is one of the iconic rooms of the Hôtel van Eetvelde. The original layout of the room is well documented thanks to old photographs taken around 1900. It features panelling and bookcases in exotic woods (African padouk and mahogany as well as North American maple burr) and a majestic pink marble and gilded brass fireplace.
However, the desk that used to be the centrepiece of the room — a masterpiece made by Henri Pelseneer, Victor Horta’s cabinetmaker — had clearly disappeared by 1925, when Edmond van Eetvelde died.
Reconstruction of this Art Nouveau gem
Since 2023, Urban and LAB·AN, who offer the public the opportunity to visit the building 3 days a week, have been working on a faithful reconstruction of the office as it was designed at the time, reintegrating objects similar to those seen in the historical photos.
Thanks to the vigilance of a Dutch collector and the Brussels heritage network, this iconic Hôtel van Eetvelde room has now been partially restored to its original state: Edmond van Eetvelde’s writing desk and the bronze by Victor Rousseau are again standing where they stood before.
The desk
This masterpiece, which has the same mouldings and is made of the same wood types as the panelling and bookcases in the office, also features a number of details which have made it possible to authenticate the desk with certainty.
“Le Liseur”
In addition, a bronze cast of the work entitled “Le Liseur” (The Reader) by the Brussels sculptor Victor Rousseau, made in 1897 and identified as the sculpture that adorned the desk in 1900, has been found in a Berlin auction room and has been returned to its place on the desk.
The fireplace implements
To complete this reconstruction, the fireplace implements, preserved by the Horta Museum, have also been returned to their spot at the foot of the office fireplace for the occasion. The protruding swirls on the sides of the fireplace catch the eye. These elegant outgrowths were there for more than ornamental reasons: they were used to hang the fireplace implements on.
These utilitarian objects are a perfect illustration of Victor Horta’s decorative logic. In Horta’s designs, decoration is never a bonus element: it always has a function or it underlines a structure. The fireplace implements now give the shape of the fireplace’s base its full meaning, seeing as its function is now understood beyond its decorative aspect.
An active heritage policy led by Urban’s teams
This reintegration takes place in the context of the museum policy and the cultural competencies transferred to the Brussels Capital Region following the sixth state reform, plemented by Urban through its Department dedicated to movable cultural heritage.
Since 2014, Urban’s mission has been to inventory, protect, conserve and promote our regional movable heritage, in collaboration with numerous public and private institutions.
The website collections.heritage.brussels, developed by its teams, now centralises an evolving database of thousands of illustrated objects from a variety of collections, making them accessible to everyone.
The reconstruction of Edmond van Eetvelde’s office is part of this movable heritage promotion and museum policy, and illustrates the wealth of synergies between institutions to bring our Brussels heritage back to life.
At the heart of the colonial system
This event does not only offer the chance to rediscover a major piece of Art Nouveau heritage, but is also symbolic for our country’s colonial history. As a matter of fact, the person who commissioned this town house, Edmond van Eetvelde, was then the general secretary of the Independent State of the Congo — a vast territory in the heart of Africa, the personal property of the Belgian King Leopold II.
From 1894 until 1899, van Eetvelde exercised the highest authority in this territory, ranking just below the sovereign himself. His memory remains directly associated with the many crimes perpetrated against the Congolese population during his time as head of state — large-scale violence for which he bears some responsibility, having set up from Brussels the administrative and economic system that fostered the development of this violence.
Public spaces are full of references to history and symbolic traces (frescoes, statues, monuments, etc.) that highlight colonial power in particular. These symbolic representations establish scales of value and hierarchies of power within the public space, and they promote racial stereotypes. Urban is committed to remedying this situation and is working to create more inclusive public spaces. Discover our section dedicated to the implementation of the action plan “Towards the decolonisation of public space in the Brussels Capital Region”.
Hôtel van Eetvelde & LAB·AN
Visit the Hôtel van Eetvelde and discover LAB·AN’s activities
LAB·AN, which was founded in the frame of the Art Nouveau year 2023, is an Art Nouveau promotion area, offering a contemporary take on this Belgian, Brussels and international cultural heritage and all the themes it encompasses. It is located in the Hôtel van Eetvelde.
Discover the Hôtel van Eetvelde in the architectural heritage inventory
The online architectural heritage inventory is a database containing several thousand historical and descriptive records, accompanied by an illustrated glossary.
