DIVA, the museum of diamonds, jewelry and silver, will reopen its doors on 9 December 2022. The Antwerp museum closed its doors in March to allow for renovations to its facade and roof.
The museum used the temporary closure to renew and expand its permanent exhibition DIVA, a Brilliant Story which celebrates 575 years of diamonds in Antwerp. The new presentation tells the story of jewellery from raw material to object. Visitors go on the same journey as the raw materials, starting in the new room devoted to mining. They meet the experts, the dealers, the designers and the makers and eventually the people who wear the jewellery or use the silverware.
The collection of DIVA focuses on diamonds, jewellery and silver from the Low Countries from the fifteenth-century to the present, with particular attention to the Golden Age of Antwerp and the Flemish Baroque. Highlights include works by Lambertus Johannes Hannocet, Joannes Josephus Hennekin II, Anthoni en Balthasar Lepies and Joannes Moermans. Some of the silverwork is connected to paintings by Peter Paul Rubens. In addition, DIVA has a large collection of applied arts including pewter, porcelain and glass. In the sculpture section, the alabaster reliefs attributed to Willem van den Broecke alias Paludanus and sculptures by Pieter Scheemaeckers I and Jan Pieter Baurscheit I stand out.
[text via codart.nl]