Please note that there is no recording of the lecture by Ko Goubert available.

The Torturous Journey of a Sixteenth-Century Altarpiece: from Göring’s Wish List to Conversation Starter at M Leuven
The Martyrdom of Saint Quentin at M, sold by Jewish art dealer Léon Seyffers to Nazi buyers in 1941, was lent to the museum by the Belgian State in 1951. It follows the path of dozens of other works in Belgian museums, retrieved from Nazi hoards and unable to be returned to potential claimants. The painting’s troubled history remained absent from object documentation and visitor mediation. Belgium is still behind on other nations’ provenance endeavors, such as national databases of Nazi-looted art. However, the public and political attention in recent years, generated by investigative journalism, marked a turning point in M’s approach. Since 2018, M shares the painting’s troubled history with the audience. An open exchange of information with Seyffers’ relatives, journalists and academics, lets M present a nuanced narrative. The artwork is now a ‘conversation piece’ in the recently renewed galleries and stimulates reflection on loaded topics during museum visits and collection-inspired talks.

Ko Goubert

M Leuven
Ko Goubert is acting Head of Collections at M Leuven, where he has been working since 2012 as registrar and collection curator of decorative arts. As an art historian focused on Belgian silver design, he has curated exhibitions at the former Sterckshof Silver Museum Antwerp, the Design Museum Gent and M Leuven. Goubert publishes works on diverse subjects, ranging from fifteenth-century Leuven silversmiths to Art Deco religious decorative arts in interwar Belgium, with the latter being the focus of his current PhD research. At M, he also contributed to shaping communication policies on looted art and colonial imagery for museum audiences.