A private collection built over decades, opened to the public for four days before it disappears into an auction catalogue. That's the offer this week in Brussels.
Christie's Belgium opened public viewing on September 10 of 'Mia Van Hool: L'audace à l'oeuvre,' a collection assembled by Belgian collector Mia Van Hool and set to go to auction in Brussels on December 2. The viewing runs as part of Brussels Art Week, alongside the city's galleries and art spaces, through September 13 at Christie's Belgium's Avenue Louise location.
A Collection Built Around Conviction, Not Trend
The collection brings together major names in contemporary art: Yoshitomo Nara, On Kawara, Luc Tuymans, Marcel Broodthaers, Michaël Borremans, Gerhard Richter, and Marlene Dumas among them. What distinguishes it isn't just the roster of artists but the range it spans, work that reflects a collector's eye developed over a long period rather than a portfolio built quickly around a single market moment.
The sale's title, roughly 'the boldness at work,' points to that same idea: a collection defined by a point of view that held steady across decades of changing art-world fashion, rather than one chasing whatever happened to be trending at the time of purchase.
Why a September Viewing Matters for a December Sale
Opening the collection to public view nearly three months before the actual auction is a deliberate choice, not a formality. It gives serious buyers, and the wider public, real time to study the works in person, and it ties the collection's debut to Brussels Art Week, when the city's collectors, galleries, and international visitors are already paying close attention.
The Formula Holds Again
A collection built by one identifiable collector, over a long period, around genuine conviction rather than a quick buying spree. Major names whose inclusion here carries the added weight of a specific, coherent point of view. And a public debut timed precisely to the moment collectors are already in the room. It's the same combination that's driven headline results across this market all year, this time announced not with a single record-breaking lot, but with an entire collection stepping into view at once.