Some 400,000 visitors took part in celebrations to mark 100 years of surrealism at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB), according to a statement released on Thursday.
From February to July, the RMFAB hosted 'IMAGINE! 100 Years of International Surrealism', an international travelling exhibition designed in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
The exhibition allowed the public to explore the poetry of surrealist artists, featuring works from Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Dora Maar, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Leonor Fini, Man Ray, Jane Graverol, Paul Delvaux, Dorothea Tanning, and many others.
To mark the end of this celebration, the Magritte Museum installed a monumental inflatable apple – six metres in diameter – on its roof.
The 400,000 visitor figure includes visitors to the IMAGINE exhibition and the Magritte Museum between January and November of this year.
Overall, museums in Brussels saw record visitor numbers last year, as 4.98 million people visited Brussels museums in 2023, 20% higher than in 2022 and slightly above pre-pandemic figures.
The Brussels Museum Council said that it expected the surrealism centenary to drive visitor numbers up again this year.
