Usus, Fructus, Abusus

Abstract: When the pieces of Maison du Peuple (Victor Horta, Brussels, 1896–99) disappeared from their precarious storage site in 1983, questions of ownership, provenance, and material value were placed center stage. In the ensuing legal case, the building's dense post-demolition provenance became subject to the scrutiny of the Belgian courts. The case was an inflection point in a long battle to salvage Maison du Peuple: a disaster for the stolen parts but a liberation for those that remained. The demolition of Maison du Peuple had already catapulted the building to international fame, but the theft of it nearly twenty years later aroused a more local outrage. Custodians and owners rushed to take advantage of a surge of interest in the deconstructed art nouveau icon, in a new cultural moment. Through a detailed unraveling of the most dubious ownerships of Maison du Peuple, this article argues that it was precisely during moments of crisis that the reputation of Maison du Peuple was reconfigured and its future stability secured.