Agenda

Come and spend the 2026 Museum Night at the IMA!
For the occasion, the Institute exceptionally opens its doors at night and offers an immersion in the heart of its collections and major exhibitions.
“Flash visits” of the museum by lecturers from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
On the program, a free and open tour of the permanent museum’s collections, its exhibitions “Attempting art to heal” and “Libya, revealed heritage”, and two major exhibitions of the moment: “Byblos, millennium city of Lebanon” and “Slaves in the Mediterranean, 17th–18th century”. And animations, mediations and artistic interventions for an even more immersive experience!
The exhibition Slaves in the Mediterranean. 17th-18th century is particularly interested in the presence and often forgotten testimonies of North Africans and some West Africans enslaved in Europe. Centered on the ports of France, Italy and the island of Malta from the 17th century to the 1830s, it highlights the experiences and representations of these human beings forced to work as galley slaves, servants, translators, musicians and artists’ assistants.
It reveals the profound impact of this history on material cultures in Europe by presenting a wide range of astonishing and rarely exhibited works of art: a life drawing of a Muslim slave made by Louis XIV’s chief painter, Charles Lebrun; works of art representing or inspired by the iconic monument of Pietro Tacca known as “Quattro Mori”; paintings depicting the suppression of a slave revolt in Malta in 1749; an album of exceptional drawings by Fabroni depicting galley slaves at work and rest; and other remarkable objects such as maritime weapons, ship sculptures, talismans and letters written by Muslim and Christian captives, which will be read aloud.
Finally, a new contemporary work of art, Suspended inTime, by the artist Kevork Mourad, will open up perspectives on what has become of this long history: its neglect after the capture of Algiers by French troops in 1830 to contemporary debates on works of art that represented slavery, including the Quattro Mori.
The exhibition Slaves in the Mediterranean. 17th-18th century is particularly interested in the presence and often forgotten testimonies of North Africans and some West Africans enslaved in Europe. Centered on the ports of France, Italy and the island of Malta from the 17th century to the 1830s, it highlights the experiences and representations of these human beings forced to work as galley slaves, servants, translators, musicians and artists’ assistants.
It reveals the profound impact of this history on material cultures in Europe by presenting a wide range of astonishing and rarely exhibited works of art: a life drawing of a Muslim slave made by Louis XIV’s chief painter, Charles Lebrun; works of art representing or inspired by the iconic monument of Pietro Tacca known as “Quattro Mori”; paintings depicting the suppression of a slave revolt in Malta in 1749; an album of exceptional drawings by Fabroni depicting galley slaves at work and rest; and other remarkable objects such as maritime weapons, ship sculptures, talismans and letters written by Muslim and Christian captives, which will be read aloud.
Finally, a new contemporary work of art, Suspended inTime, by the artist Kevork Mourad, will open up perspectives on what has become of this long history: its neglect after the capture of Algiers by French troops in 1830 to contemporary debates on works of art that represented slavery, including the Quattro Mori.
Discover the selection of the bookstore around the exhibition
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