The Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (Dutch: Museum voor Schone Kunsten, abbreviated as MSK) is a famous art museum in Belgium. Located in the eastern part of Ghent's Citadel Park. The museum was founded in 1798 and is one of the most ancient museums in Belgium, famous for the diversity of its painting collection, covering the period from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century. The Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent occupies a strong place among the largest art museums in Belgium in terms of the richness and variety of its collections. The foundation of its collections was laid at the end of the 18th century, when, due to the secularization of church property, many first-class works of art became the property of city authorities. The property holdings of the Jesuit Order, which was prohibited by a decree of 1773, turned out to be especially rich. At the same time, by order of the Austrian authorities, a considerable number of paintings and sculptures were purchased, which were then sent to Vienna. In 1783, Joseph II gave an order (Belgium was then part of the possession of the House of Habsburg) to close thirteen more religious organizations in Ghent and confiscate their valuables. Works of art from their composition were sold at auctions. Upon entering Ghent on November 12, 1792, the French occupying authorities ordered the shipment of many of the treasures that Ghent had stored to Paris. Thus, parts of the Ghent Altarpiece, works by Rubens, van Dyck and others were taken to the Louvre. The remaining two hundred and fifty works were collected in the Church of St. Petra, which as a museum was opened to the public on November 22, 1802. But already in 1805 the collections were transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts, founded in the former Augustinian monastery, where they remained for a hundred years. In 1818, of all the artistic treasures of Ghent captured by the French, only sixty paintings were returned.