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Discover the collection

Antwerp is a port city where the world has been mooring at the docks for centuries. The MAS collection is the place where city and world meet. 500,000 exhibits offer a varied perspective on the city and its age-old contacts with the world. Some of them are displayed in permanent and temporary exhibitions, but most are kept in storage. In the Visible Storage area, the MAS lifts a corner of the veil. For the really inquisitive, the MAS also has its entire collection on display online.

12,770 km from home and what was lost along the way

Colonial collectors brought many pustaha into European museum collections, thus separating these books from their communities of origin. What happens to the knowledge that manuscripts contain when they are displaced and access to them is lost?

Hans Christoffel: ‘The Little Captain Who Conquered the Jungle’

Concealed behind Dutch Ethical Policy there was the reality of resistance to colonial rule being violently suppressed through so-called ‘pacification’ campaigns. Christoffel became simultaneously one of the most notorious agents of these campaigns and one of the most highly decorated.

Congo in the MAS

The origin of the Congolese collection in the MAS dates back about a hundred years.

Cane and pinfire pistol

The exhibition “Colonialisme. Une Suisse impliquée” is on view at the Château de Prangins (National Museum of Switzerland) through October 11, 2026. For this exhibition, the MAS loaned a cane (made in Kalimantan) and a European-made pistol.

The ‘Hans Christoffel Collection’

A heritage collection from the colonial context of the Dutch East Indies at the MAS

An excellent herb cake

A venison hotchpotch

Small waffles called bastoncelli

'Poesjenellen' heritage

The MAS collection comprises approximately 2,400 objects related to the poesjenelle tradition, originating from the former Folklore Museum: rod puppets, stage props, signs, theatre programmes and photographs. We also have rod puppets from other theatre traditions and a number of hand puppets.