Can crowdfunding repair three stolen portraits — and a gap in Antwerp’s heritage budget?

The Province of Antwerp has launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance the restoration of three d’Ursel family portraits recovered more than 50 years after they were stolen from Kasteel d’Ursel in Hingene. Restoring the three canvases and their surviving frames is expected to cost several tens of thousands of euros, according to the castle, although no precise budget, fundraising target or timetable has yet been published.

The appeal carries the playful invitation to help Eleonora, Charles, Léon and Caroline — and the children’s dog — “get back on top”. Behind that phrasing lies a difficult conservation job. The paintings have holes, tears and other damage associated with their disappearance and storage, and two were reportedly kept rolled up. Kasteel d’Ursel says donors may support the collective campaign or discuss becoming the patron of an entire portrait.

Belgian donations are being channelled through the King Baudouin Foundation. The castle says gifts totalling at least €40 to the foundation in a calendar year qualify for a 30% Belgian income-tax reduction under the applicable rules. For an eligible taxpayer, a €40 gift therefore represents a potential net cost of €28 after the reduction; the immediate payment remains €40, and the eventual benefit depends on the donor’s tax position. This is the campaign’s most concrete household consequence, while businesses or wealthier patrons can consider financing a complete treatment.

The works are not anonymous decorations. One portrays Eleonora de Salm, the first Duchess d’Ursel, who lived from 1678 to 1737. Another depicts her son Charles, the second duke, born in 1717. The third shows Charles’s great-grandchildren Léon and Caroline with a dog. The castle dates their sittings to 1715, 1739 and around 1812 respectively, but says the painters’ identities remain unresolved.

Their recovery closed part of a story that began on the night of 12 February 1972. At least seven portraits were cut from their frames and removed during a break-in, according to accounts published by Kasteel d’Ursel and regional broadcaster Radio Reflex. A portrait believed to represent Lancelot Schetz surfaced at a Brussels auction in March 2022 and was bought by a private collector, who financed its restoration and agreed to lend it to the castle.

Publicity surrounding that discovery prompted a man clearing an attic to contact the institution about other paintings in his possession. Castle director Koen De Vlieger subsequently identified the portraits of Eleonora, Charles and the two children. The original gilded frames had remained in the d’Ursel collection, making it possible to reunite the recovered canvases with fittings preserved for more than five decades.

The portraits are now being shown in their damaged condition in “TALKING HEADS: Portretten met een verhaal (1626–2026)”, which runs at Kasteel d’Ursel from 31 May to 2 November 2026. According to the venue, the exhibition places historic d’Ursel portraits alongside works by more than 50 contemporary artists. Showing the damage gives visitors evidence of the theft and recovery, but it does not remove the conservation risk or pay the specialists needed to stabilise the canvases, repair losses and treat the frames.

That funding question places a small cultural project inside a wider Belgian market for mixed heritage finance. Public authorities, foundations, companies and individual donors frequently share restoration costs because specialist labour, technical examination, transport and conservation-grade materials make projects expensive. In Antwerp, the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage said a separate campaign for the Rubens Chapel raised more than €100,000 through crowdfunding, a star-sponsorship initiative and matching support from brewer Duvel Moortgat.

Direct comparison nevertheless has limits. The Rubens Chapel campaign involved a celebrated artist, a major city church and a corporate matching mechanism. No matching company has been announced for the d’Ursel portraits, and their eligibility for Flemish restoration subsidies has not been confirmed. The Flemish Culture Department says designated masterpieces can receive restoration support of between 50% and 80% of eligible costs, depending on ownership, public access and condition. There is no published evidence in the campaign material that these three portraits have that protected status.

This distinction matters because Kasteel d’Ursel is owned by the Province of Antwerp, which acquired the property in 1994 and has funded its broader recovery and public use. Asking residents to contribute can deepen their involvement with a collection that is publicly accessible. It can also prompt a reasonable question about where voluntary generosity ends and the responsibility of a public owner begins. Until the province publishes a full cost plan and explains its own contribution, donors cannot see what share of the restoration they are being asked to carry.

The immediate economic impact is modest: the campaign concerns a specialist commission worth tens of thousands rather than a large construction programme. Its value lies in paid work for conservators and frame restorers, the preservation of an exhibition asset and the possibility of supporting future visits to Hingene. Those benefits should not be inflated into claims about Antwerp’s wider economy, but they are tangible for the cultural-heritage supply chain.

The next test is transparency. The province and castle have not yet disclosed how much has been raised, when treatments could begin, which conservators will be selected or whether all three works can proceed together. They also continue to seek three portraits still missing from the 1972 theft: François d’Ursel, Eleonora de Lobkowicz and Robert d’Ursel. For now, the recovered paintings remain both exhibits and evidence — returned to their former home, but not yet restored.