"Freight" is the story of a port in the long history of globalisation. From the Vikings to today. A story about glorious periods and extraordinary encounters, but also about the downsides of economic growth.
A world famous collection that tells us about the extraordinary relationship between man and the world of gods, ancestors and spirits in America before the conquest by the Europeans.
The MAS collection consists of more than 500,000 objects about art, cultural traditions and history of the city and port of Antwerp. But also of Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Oceania.
The MAS started digitizing its collection of thousands of slides. These slides that used to be projected with a magic lantern, are finally seeing the light of day again.
The Antwerp Hand biscuits are the most well-known tourist souvenir from the city. In the MAS collection, we find many packagings of the biscuits. However, behind the scenes of the little biscuit, there is more than one story to tell.
The freeing of the Scheldt was a landmark event in Flemish history. In mid-1863, Antwerp celebrated that after more than 250 years, merchant shipping on the Scheldt was truly free again. A telling painting of this ‘Scheldt Free!’ celebration from the MAS collection can be seen in our Visible Storage.
Once the largest port in the world, today the Port of Antwerp is characterised by colourful containers. It connects the city with the rest of the world. Dive into the history of our port.
FREE ENTRANCE | Discover ‘Tatreez’ (Palestinian embroidery) in the Visible Storage. Historical pieces from the MAS collection are displayed alongside contemporary creations. The presentation shows how this centuries-old embroidery tradition is much more than just decoration on textiles.
