On Thursday, July 11, 2024, the Belgian Ambassador to Lebanon, Mr. Koen Vervaeke, Officer of the Order of the Crown, and his wife welcomed Dr. Joseph Rustom, Director of the Bibliothèque Orientale (Oriental Library) of the Saint Joseph University of Beirut (USJ), and Mrs. Cynthia-Maria Ghobril Andrea, Director of Fondation USJ, to the Belgian Residence.
On this occasion, the Ambassador donated two exceptional tapestries to the Bibliothèque Orientale (Oriental Library). The first, Chasses de Louis XIV à Fontainebleau, is a monumental hunting scene which had joined the Embassy’s collection in 1971. The second, Verdures à Grands Ramages, is a screen-printed reproduction produced by the Éditions d’Art de Rambouillet and acquired by the Embassy in 1981; the original is held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
These significant gifts follow the Ambassador and his wife’s initial visit to the Bibliothèque Orientale (Oriental Library) on Friday, February 23, 2024, accompanied by Mrs. Mary Boghossian, representative of the Boghossian Foundation and principal benefactor of the Photographic Collection, and her husband, Mr. Ghassan Salamé, former Lebanese Minister of Culture, Education, and Higher Education. During the visit, they discovered the Library’s exceptional collections of photographs, maps, books, and manuscripts.
These donations reflect the fruitful and ongoing collaboration between the Belgian Embassy and the Bibliothèque Orientale (Oriental Library) of USJ.