La collection d’art de la Banque nationale de Belgique

In 1972, the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) began buying works of art from living artists of the Belgian art scene. The NBB has always been assisted in this policy by external advisors – curators, art critics, … - who have helped to translate the original purchasing decision into a collection in the full sense of the word, comprising about 2,000 pieces today. The large majority of the works hang in the NBB’s offices and meeting rooms. In line with this internal objective, the curators have made important internal communication efforts around the collection, through the staff magazine, intranet, artist talks, … They have also commissioned many site-specific works. The art collection of the NBB has never been considered a financial investment (the works may not be sold), but rather an expression of the institution’s corporate social responsibility. This is one of the reasons why the NBB in 2019 organised the first exhibition of part of its art collection (together with works from the collection of the Deutsche Bundesbank), as a first step towards a regular presentation to the public.