Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, they say. Well, than Antwerp will be a girl’s favourite place, since almost every diamond has passed through the city in its lifetime. More than 80% of rough stones and about half of all polished ones are traded via Antwerp.

Later this year a new museum is going to open its doors: Diva. Diva will be situated on Suikerrui and will host a collection that comes partly from the old Diamondmuseum and what used to be the Silvermuseum in Deurne. To celebrate this new museum Antwerp organizes a Diamondyear in 2017, that will start on Oct. 14 th in the Diamond Quarter. Monday Oct. 17th a new exhibition will start in the MAS-museum, all around diamond (the material, the jewels, the applications, the meaning and influence, …) and in December Diva will open its doors. By that time, the new museum will only partly be ready. Further parts will be opened to the public in the course of 2018.

Diva is going to be not just a museum, it will be a centre where one can experience diamonds, where one will be lured into the world of wealth and luxury and which will tell the story of people whose life is linked with the precious stones.

The centre will have a permanent exposition floor of some 800 m², and a further 800 m² are available for temporary exhibitons.

If you’re planning to visit Antwerp anywhere before the end of 2017, you can find exhibitions for both silverwork and diamonds in the pavilions outside of the MAS-museum. Entrance for both exhibitions as well as for the harbourpavilion is free.