Collection

Access to the collection

The objects and documents are digitally described in a comouterised database (Adlib). A large section of Sportimonium’s collection can be consulted online at Erfgoedplus.be. This comprises nearly 16,000 museum pieces, from photographs, slides, posters and certificates to sports attire, medals and trophies. All collection pieces that appear on Erfgoedplus.be can also be accessed through the Europeana website, a European Union joint heritage project. 

Origins of the collection

The seeds of the Sportimonium collection were sown in 1973 at KU Leuven with a research project in sporting history led by Professor Roland Renson. In 1985, the Flanders Sport Museum vzw (Sportimonium vzw from 2009) was founded to provide a permanent home for documents and objects that testify to Belgium’s rich sporting history. Since then, the collection has been built up systematically and a part of it is on view in the permanent displays.

Nature, scope and preservation

Sportimonium is building a selective but representative collection that attests to the sports and movement culture in Flanders in its broader (inter)national, historical and socio-cultural context and to traditional games culture worldwide. The collection is highly diverse and includes clothing, footwear, sports and games equipment, flags, pennants, trophies and medals. The museum also preserves audiovisual documents, such as films, videos, audio cassettes, records, music scores, prints, postcards, posters, etc. The collection comprises some 8,000 objects and 13,000 audiovisual documents.

Preservation

Only 15 % of the collection is on view in the permanent displays. Most of the pieces are kept in the museum repository, the "Preservation Hall Victor Boin". They are used for temporary exhibitions or loaned to other museums.