The Phoebus Foundation was founded to ensure the future of what started as the private collection of Fernand and Karine Huts and of the family enterprise Katoen Natie.

To extract the collection from the industrial and financial risks of the Katoen Natie group of companies, it was placed in an independent legal structure, aimed at the management of its property rights.

Apollo brings inspiration or even divine enlightenment and is the protector of the mythical golden age – a heavenly era in which violence, greed, jealousy and injustice do not yet exist.The collection of the Phoebus Foundation consists of nine subcollections.

The emphasis is on art from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, including works by Hugo Van der Goes, Hans Memling, Gerard David, Jan Gossaert, Pieter Bruegel, Maerten de Vos and Michaelina Wautier to Peter Paul Rubens, Antoon Van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens.

It also features expressionists Gustave De Smet, Constant Permeke and Frits Van den Berghe, as well as works by Rik Wouters, James Ensor, Jules Schmalzigaug, Edgard Tytgat, Floris and Oscar Jespers, and surrealists such as Magritte and Delvaux.

The focus is on the early period of the movement, with works by Karel Appel, Alechinsky, Corneille, Jorn, Pedersen and Christian Dotremont.

The tunic room displays the largest collection of complete tunicas in the world, along with accessories such as hairnets, socks, footwear and jewellery.

The collection holds masterpieces from – among others – Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, with names such as Torres-Garcia, Gurvich, Alpuy, Berni, Schvartz and Matto.

In 1652 Jacob Jordaens painted a series of ceiling pieces about the love story of Amor and Psyche for his spacious home in Antwerp.

[11] In collaboration with The Phoebus Foundation and Katoen Natie, an international congress by the name 'Textiles from the Nile Valley' is also organized here every two years.

This exhibition in the Caermers Monastery in Ghent took the visitor through the five golden centuries of the Southern Netherlands, ending at the Eighty Years' War.

[15] After the presentation of the triptych with Saint Luke painting the Madonna, The Phoebus Foundation focuses on another piece from its collection: a floral still life by Daniël Seghers (1590–1661).

A selection of masterpieces from the old master collection combined with textile fragments, contemporary art and haute couture told the unique story of this home-grown Flemish luxury product.

The exhibition was a journey through three hundred years of cultural history, with breathtaking masterpieces from the collection of The Phoebus Foundation in the leading role.

Unknown gems by Hans Memling, Quinten Metsys, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens and Anthony Van Dyck took you to a world full of folly and sin, fascination and ambition.

From Memling to Rubens was about dukes and emperors, about rich citizens and poor saints, about art rooms as wine cellars and about Antwerp as Hollywood on the Scheldt.

It tells the tragic story of Dymphna, an Irish princess and patron saint of the mentally ill, who is venerated in the town of Geel, in the Kempen region of Flanders.

In 2021 the panels were being hosted by Niguliste Museum in Tallinn (Estonia), where an interactive scenography immersed the visitor in the Irish saint’s extraordinary world.

Visitors could discover the exceptional stories, forgotten for centuries, that unfolded beneath the layers of dust and dirt, while experiencing the unique history of a monumental altarpiece.

[22][23] In collaboration with Denver Art Museum, The Phoebus Foundation organized a new exhibition in which their 15th- to 17th-century masterpieces will be presented to a new audience in the U.S., revealing the fascinating world of various artists from the Southern Netherlands.