HISTORY

The first Foire des Antiquaires de Belgique was held in 1956 at the Salle Arlequin in the Galeries Louise in Brussels. The antiques Fair was organised at the request of Charles Van Hove, the President of the Chambre des Antiquaires de Belgique at the time. This event can be seen as a precursor, since only two fairs had enjoyed comparable renown beforehand: the Grosvenor House Fair in London and the Prinsenhof Fair in Delft. In 1968, in light of the Fair’s success and the growing number of participants, the organisers decided to move the event to the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

In 1995, Christian De Bruyn, the chairman at the time, suggested opening the Fair up to foreign antique dealers, which was a first step forward. Until then, the event had been restricted to Belgian antique dealers, members of the Chambre Royale des Antiquaires de Belgique. In 2004, the Foire des Antiquaires de Belgique moved to Tour & Taxis. This move was a real gamble since the site was still only a development-stage project. The space provided by this new venue quickly enabled the Fair to expand. From a national Fair with 20 participants, it grew over time to become an international Fair with more than one hundred exhibitors.

In the 1990s, the specialities on show at the Fair also began to evolve. Tribal art, contemporary art and comic strips were henceforth exhibited on certain stands. The name “Foire des Antiquaires de Belgique” (Belgian Antiques Fair) no longer corresponded to the internationalisation and diversity of the fields on offer, so the decision was taken to rename the Fair BRAFA (Brussels Art Fair), its official moniker since 2008.

In 2022, following the development of new projects on the Tour & Taxis site, BRAFA moved to a new venue for the fourth time. It is now held at Brussels Expo on the Heysel plateau, to the north of the Belgian capital. The Brussels Expo exhibition venue was specifically designed to host a variety of trade fairs and international events. Illustrating a prestigious past, the infrastructure of its exhibition halls is a legacy of the Brussels World’s Fairs of 1935 and 1958, the flagship monument of which is undoubtedly the Atomium, the symbol of the 1958 Fair.

From the outset, a host of VIPs have been invited to inaugurate the Fair. These have included Princess Hélène of France, the Grand-Ducal family of Luxembourg, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, Baron Albert Frère, Karl Lagerfeld, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Claude Brialy, and many others. Since 2008, BRAFA has also welcomed prestigious guests of honour, ranging from major Belgian cultural institutions such as the Opéra de la Monnaie in 2013 and the Paul Delvaux Foundation in 2024, to internationally renowned artists such as Julio Le Parc in 2017, Christo in 2018, Gilbert & George in 2019 and Arne Quinze in 2022.