Brussels’ famous ‘Future is Europe’ mural gets pulled down

One of the most photographed murals in Brussels was torn down Wednesday to make way for a European Commission conference center.
“The Future is Europe,” painted by Belgian-Congolese artist Julien Crevaels, is a familiar sight to those trudging up Rue de la Loi, the main thoroughfare in Brussels’ European quarter, home to the European Union’s institutions.
The bright mural decorates the wall of 93-97 Rue de la Loi, an otherwise grey, tired office building that is being demolished to create sprawling new offices for the Commission.
Crevaels, who goes by the moniker Novadead, told POLITICO the mural, which he was commissioned to paint in 2017 by Belgian real estate group Atenor, was always meant to be temporary.
“It was always the plan [to remove it], actually it was supposed to be earlier,” he said. “But it’s still sad to see it now … A lot of people had such feelings toward that mural.”
He added he was in talks with the Commission to recreate the mural in a different location “in some form” but “nothing concrete” had been decided.
Spokespeople for the Commission and Atenor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.