Outside the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten

The earliest nucleus of the museum has its origin with the Antwerp Guild of St Luke to which the city's artists belonged between 1382 and 1773. In 1663 an academy was founded under the guild's auspices. When the guilds were disbanded in 1773, the Academy of Fine Arts took possession of the guild's gallery. The rather limited composition of the Academy's museum started to grow in the 19th century through generous donations. They passed into the ownership of the state in 1927.

The collection preserved at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp provides a representative picture of art produced in the region between the fourteenth century and the present day. The collection as a whole now numbers more than 7,200 works of art, consisting of 3,200 painting, 3,600 drawings and prints, and 400 sculptures.