The War Heritage Institute and Belspo are organising a conference titled "FAKE, False and Real in Museums, Culture and Society". This activity is supported by the University Foundation.
This congress wants to show and document through lectures, cases and in extenso guided visits the scope of FAKES in heritage and society, from examples in the fields of cultural, historical and artistic heritage conserved in museums and cultural institutions and will treat topics of expertise as Archaeology, Conservation, Archives, Ethnography, Anthropology, History, Paintings and Visual Arts, Palaeontology, Military, Textile and Costume, Fashion, Design, Media & Journalism, Climate Change Research/Data, Scientific Imagery, Heritage Criminology and Law.
The Belgian experts, speakers and lecturers are or were professional active in the War Heritage Institute, the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, the Royal Museums of Art and History, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, the Royal Belgian Institute of Space Aeronomy, the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), in Belgian universities (Brussels, Ghent) or in international organizations as ICOM.
During the two days of the congress there will be guided visits in the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (the Painting Conservation Studio, the Radiography and Infrared Reflectography, Macro-XRF Scanning, Radiocarbon Dating / Dendrochronology Departments and the Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives), the Royal Museums of Art and History and the War Heritage Institute located on the site Cinquantenaire in Brussels. There Fake-examples will be shown and explained how the scientific analysis and research can determine if a artistic, natural, artistic or cultural good is real or fake.
Keynote and Foreign Speakers: Sir Mark Jones, Honorary Director of Victoria and Albert Museum and honorary director of National Scottish Museums; Mrs. Ariele Elia, Assistant Director at the Fashion Law Institute New York; Mr. Daan Kok, Curator Asia at the Museum of World Cultures (the Netherlands); Mr. Christoph Hatschek, Vice-Direktor and Head of Collections & Exhibition Department, Heeresgeschichliches Museum Arsenal, Vienna; Mr. Mathieu Willemsen, Curator of the Firearms Collection, National Military Soesterberg and Mr. Olivier Renaudeau, Curator Ancient Régime Collections, Musée de l’Armée des Invalides, Paris.
Download the full program.
Besides a special thanks for the participation of the directory boards and the personnel of these institutions, we also want thank Belgian Science Policy, ICOM Belgium, ICOM Wallonia-Brussels, the Belgian University Foundation, the Flemish Community Commission Brussels for their financial aid and help to make this congress possible.
The programme and the registration form can be downloaded using the links below.