In the course of the nineteenth century, the idea of turning the house into a monument gathered steam. A thorough restoration was required after the City of Antwerp purchased the property in 1937.
In 1946, Rubens's former home reopened as a museum. Today the portico and the garden pavilion are the only authentic remnants of the seventeenth-century building.
Since its opening, the museum supplemented and expanded the collection with masterpieces by Rubens and his contemporaries. It also organised an impressive series of exhibitions in addition to this.