KIK- IRPA – Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
BRAFA 2025, Brussels
January 26 – February 2, 2025
Since its founding in 1948, the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) has played a pioneering role in the preservation of a wide variety of heritage objects, including paintings, wood and stone sculptures, tapestries, precious metals, glass and elements of architectural heritage. The building in Brussels that has housed KIK-IRPA since 1962 was the first in the world to be specially designed to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to conserving works of art, in which restorers, chemists, engineers, imaging specialists, photographers and art historians work together. Approximately 100 of its scientists are working on ambitious projects at both national and international levels.
KIK-IRPA is best known for its prestigious restorations, such as that of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by the Van Eyck brothers in the former baptistery of Ghent's Saint Bavo Cathedral. In its state-of-the-art laboratories, advanced tools such as 3D microscopy, macro-XRF, and radiocarbon dating provide crucial insights into the materials and techniques used by artists and craftsmen, helping to ensure the proper preservation of cultural treasures for future generations. Great importance is attached to rigorous documentation and art history research. For example, the Institute preserves Belgium’s collective visual memory in the BALaT online database, which contains over a million photographs of cultural objects, hundreds of thousands of which can be downloaded free of charge.
At BRAFA 2025, the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage will be showcasing the many facets of its work, from art conservation and restoration to heritage management and scientific analysis, in a space next to the King Baudouin Foundation. Visitors are invited to discover how specialists analyse and document works of art, providing fascinating insights into their history and their crafting techniques.
Workshops will be held every day at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. for members of the public to learn about methods of conserving works of art and to explore the technologies that are currently in use. Experts will also share fascinating discoveries from their research, illustrating how scientific methods and modern technology are unlocking new dimensions for the understanding of historical works of art.
Workshops can only be booked via the
BRAFA website: www.brafa.art
From Sunday, January 26th to Sunday, February 2nd, 2025, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Brussels Expo – Halls 3 & 4 – Place de Belgique 1, 1020 Brussels
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage – KIK- IRPA
BALaT online database
