Famous Belgians are hard to find, or so they tell you. Rene Magritte and Adolphe Saxe, the inventor of the saxophone, the painters Breughel and Van Eyck, Jacques Brel, Hercule Poirot (sic) and many others tell a different story.

But the most famous Belgian of them all is probably Tintin, the intrepid cartoon boy reporter-cum-detective with a quiff that rode his head like a wave, and a small dog called Snowy that tagged along behind. In the company of his mysterious friends, Captain Haddock, who specialised in crapulous nautical slang, Professor Calculus, and Thomson and Thompson, (the bumbling Englishmen), Tintin wandered the world in plus fours, solving crimes, righting wrongs, and winning the hearts of small people everywhere from Chipping Sodbury to the People's Republic of China, where the government has allowed all the Tintin books except 'Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets' to be published. 'Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets' is, of course, rejected for anti-communist sentiments. In a similar vein, it is said that the Chinese wanted to retitle 'Tintin in Tibet' as 'Tintin in Chinese Tibet', but eventually relented.

In China, Tintin is known as Ding Ding, and Thomson and Thompson are known as Dubang and Dubang.

And so, given that Tintin is both famous and undeniably Belgian, it was hardly surprising when the curators of a 2005 national exhibition to be called "Made in Belgium", designed to mark the 175th anniversary of the country's independence from the Netherlands and celebrate the acheivements of the Belgian people, wanted to include a display of original Tintin artefacts to form a centrepiece of the exhibition, artefacts they already had to hand.

Tintin was the creation of the Belgian author and illustrator, Georges Remi, who used the pen name Herge (which is his initials reversed, RG, as they would be pronounced in French). Remi produced 24 volumes of the Adventures of Tintin by the time of his death in 1983 at the age of 75.

But Moulinsart, the merchandising company that controls the rights to Herge's estate and the image of Tintin, told the curators of the Made in Belgium exhibition that they could feature Tintin only if they paid a handsome fee to Moulinsart, and allowed Moulinsart to dictate the contents of the Tintin exhibit.

The exhibition was educational and a celebration of Belgium's heritage, so funds were limited. On paper Tintin may be the most important Belgian that ever existed. The reality is a little more circumspect. Throwing a large proportion of the funds at the part of the exhibition designed to keep the children happy would leave other, equally important, sections of the show short of funds, and bereft of material.

Moulinsart is run by an Englishman, Nick Rodwell, who once owned a shop in Covent Garden that specialised in Tintin memorabilia, and is a long time adherent of both Tintin and Herge. Indeed, after Remi's death, he married the writer's second wife, Fanny, who was 20 years Rodwell's senior. Rodwell has been in charge of what he once described as the Tintin heritage "gold mine" ever since.

After much public wringing of hands on both sides, the exhibition's organisers failed to acheive a satisfactory deal with Moulinsart. Liane Steyaert, a spokeswoman for the exhibition organisers said: "It is true about the money. We had to rethink the exhibition. But we are still talking and hope to come to an agreement without paying money... Tintin is a national hero in Belgium, and to have an exhibition dedicated to the country's greats without him in it is a tragedy (sic)."

In her eyes Moulinsart had compounded the tragedy. "We tried to negotiate with Mr Rodwell and the Herge Foundation, which holds the rights to Tintin, but he was incredibly difficult about it. He said that the only way they would let us display Herge's works and other memorabilia was if we paid for their own architects and designers to design the display. This would have cost us a great deal of money, which we do not have. After that he refused to allow us to make a display."

So Tintin, the greatest Belgian who never lived, failed to make it into the exhibition that celebrated Belgium's heritage.

But not all of Herge's family, as represented by his nephew, who is also called Georges Remi, were best pleased by this outcome, and accused Moulinsart of "failing to respect the spirit of Tintin."

"It's disgusting, revolting, scandalous, unforgivable", Remi told the tabloid 'La Derniere Heure'.

"It borders on insulting Herge and his numerous admirers. It's legitimate to protect the work of Herge, but enclosing it in a high security prison goes completely against what my uncle would have wanted."

In a counter statement, Moulinsart said it was "very sad" that the exhibition would not include Tintin. "Herge's work should be featured in this major cultural event where the visitors can discover the most famous personalities who played such a significant and important role in Belgian history. The Herge Foundation did its best to co-operate with this event," presumably not to the extent of relinquishing some of its conditions and fees, "and was ready to make the dream come true and to display the artist's cartoon strips and other items, such as the portrait of Herge by Andy Warhol..."

The firm's statement made no mention of money, and no mention of the fact that its demands, and control over the rights and copyrights on the works of Herge and Tintin had created the situation in the first place.

"In the foundation's mind," the statement said, "it was not conceivable to present Herge without displaying his work, his drawings, his own sketches and his signature. Showing pieces or models made by other people is a nonsense... Why not accept the treasures of the foundation? It is like staging an exhibition on Breughel without his paintings... This is the reason why the foundation has decided not to pursue this any further, at the risk of being misunderstood."

There was definitely a misunderstanding between the owners of the legacy of Herge and Herge's nephew. Remi told 'La Derniere Heure': Rodwell wants "to turn Tintin into a Disney style empire, and anyone who gets in the way is crushed..."

Tintin was a no-show, and the Belgians made do with the paintings of Magritte and Breughel, the instruments of Adolph Saxe, the songs of Jacques Brel, and the thoughts of Hercule Poirot instead...

Richard Hillesley