Experts

Manon

As the daughter of an antiques dealer, Manon Verbeeck (°1988) developed a passion for art and history at an early age. She studied Art Science and Archaeology at the University of Brussels and the University of Leiden. Since 2013, she has been working as a guide in, among others, the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels and the MOMU in Antwerp. She also worked in several art galleries with contemporary art. She has lived in the heart of Antwerp all her life and knows the historic city center like the back of her hand.

Natacha

Natacha Van de Peer (°1984) is a city guide, writer and organiser of various activities. She obtained a master’s degree in Architectural Sciences in Antwerp and a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering. She also studied at the Kunsthistorisch Instituut in Antwerp. With a passion for architecture, she develops fascinating guided tours, writes books on architecture and baroque and develops city games. All located in Antwerp.

Sarah

Sarah Vanwelden (Founder Newchild Gallery, Antwerp) is an experienced Art Advisor with a high level of connoisseurship, independent market knowledge and an extensive international network. During her 7-year tenure at Christie’s in London, she mostly worked on Client Strategy and Client Development. Working across a variety of departments, she particularly focused on Books and Manuscripts, Antiquities, Classical and Contemporary Asian, and African art. She worked on the inaugural Christie’s Mumbai sales and was a pivotal figure in the development of Christie’s client base in India.

With her expertise, extensive insight in the art market, and a great art historical framework, she is an incredible source of knowledge. Following her time at Christie’s, she worked for Axel Vervoordt as an art advisor to some of his most high profile clients. Since leaving Vervoordt, she has co-founded a contemporary art gallery called Newchild together with her partners Chandler Noah and Diego Castaño. She is responsible for all daily operations of the gallery as well as all artist and collector relations. In addition to Newchild, she has been working with a number of private clients on collection management (advising and assisting on all art and design acquisitions).

Naomi

Modern art conservator – curator at The Phoebus Foundation (Family Huts, Antwerp). She obtained her master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) and specialized in Art and Economics at the Catholic University of Leuven. She worked in New York for four years for the Fine Arts Conservation Group restoration company and continued her career in modern art in Antwerp with The Phoebus Foundation.

Here she investigates the modern Latin American and the CoBrA art collections. She has a passion for entrepreneurship and is involved on a daily basis in connecting entrepreneurs with the art world through the Plato network of VOKA (Chamber of Commerce Antwerp).

Giovanna

Giovanna Tamà (°1987) works as an independent painting conservator of old masters. After completing her master’s degree in painting conservation and restoration at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, she worked at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Following that, she worked for the Royal Institute for Art Heritage in Brussels. Here she carried out the restoration and material technical research on a self-portrait of the Belgian artist Constant Permeke. At IPARC she participated in the ambitious restoration of 41 paintings from the Carolus Borromeus Church in Antwerp and restored eight ceiling paintings by Jacob Jordaens from the Jacob Jordaens House.

Inez

Inez Dechamps (° 1964) graduated as a Licentiate in Romance Philology (UA 1986). After about 25 years in teaching as a French and Spanish teacher, this self-taught glutton art history and literature started working as a city and museum guide in Antwerp. Since 2004 she feels like a fish in the water in 16th and 17th century Antwerp and the related museums, but also with the modern and contemporary masters of the Middelheim Museum and others.

She is active as a guide in the historic houses and museums of our city, in the monumental churches of Antwerp and a number of (private) collections on modern and contemporary art.

Wim

Wim Aerts (1988*) studied architecture at the Henry Van De Velde Institute in Antwerp. He worked 8 years as a freelance for various Antwerp architectural firms before working for the City of Antwerp as project manager for the construction of the Opera Square, the underlying parking lot and the adjacent archaeological site of the Spanish city walls. After working as a cabinet advisor on Environmental Planning for alderman Annick De Ridder, he became Commercial Director within the Artes Group. A construction company that works on numerous exceptional projects (KMSKA, Old Courthouse, Cruise Terminal, Quay wall reinforcement, ‘t Groen Kwartier,…). Currently Wim is working as a Project Manager for Sport Vlaanderen in the framework of the creation of various top sport locations.

Hannah

Hannah Thijs (°1990) studied art sciences and archaeology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the University of Leiden, focusing on sixteenth-century art from the Netherlands and Italy. After several internships at museums and research centers in Antwerp and Rome, she obtained a master’s degree in cultural management at the University of Antwerp. She then worked for more than five years as Collection Manager at The Phoebus Foundation in Antwerp. Since June 2021 Hannah works as Head of Collection at Museum Hof van Busleyden in Mechelen.

Bogi

Bogi Timár (°1987) holds several university degrees in archaeology, history, economics and art & design management. She studied prehistorical & classical archaeology and history at the almost 400 years old Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary and had her internship with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. Later with the purpose to train her analytical & business skills she studied economics with a logistics & transportation major at the University of Debrecen-Faculty of Economics and Business, Debrecen, Hungary. She has 8 year of multinational global business development and management experience in the high-tech industry.  Furthermore, she got her master degree in Art & Design Management at Budapest Metropolitan University of Applied Sciences, and in 2019 she started Sybil Art Business Consulting (based in Antwerp), a dynamic, customer focused, data-driven digital solutions provider for art galleries, studios and collections. She has specialized experience developing coordinated business strategy, communication & technological setup, nevertheless digital marketing solutions. 

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