Belgium's Lottery Culture

Funds from Britain's new National Lottery are currently being canvassed as pump-primers for everything from a national cycle-path network through to a giant Millennium Ferris wheel overlooking the Thames. But meanwhile from Belgium comes news of how another country is using some of its Lottery money to bring medieval statues back to life.

Under the auspices of the King Baudouin Foundation, an exhibition has been touring in Belgium – most recently on show at the Bijlokemuseum in Ghent – with examples of some two dozen statues that have been restored under the 'SOS Polychromie' initiatives. They are the fruits of a painstaking conservation process designed to restore often highly-coloured and painted sculptures, dating from c.1180 right through to 'naive art' examples from the eighteenth century.

Over 400 requests were submitted by the custodians of sculpture from museums, churches and other foundations under the initiative. The Roi Baudouin Foundation explains, in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, that their criteria for selecting the pieces for treatment were their importance aesthetically, their significance in art history, and their 'at risk' status.