Basement for a work of art

The Antonio Sciortino masterpiece Les Gavroches, which attracted every visitor's attention at the Upper Barrakka when it was exhibited there, is displayed today at the Museum of Fine Arts on a metal structure which seems to have been haphazardly covered by a length of green cloth that seems hardly the proper material to use.

Heritage Malta last Wednesday in a letter to The Times, said "the statue is proudly and effectively displayed in the beautiful inner Loggia of the National Museum of Fine Arts in South Street, Valletta".

Actually Les Gavroches today blocks an arched entrance that leads through to what seems to be a workshop. The arched entrance is only partly blocked by a makeshift board which makes the whole set-up look extremely tatty.

The lighting provided by two strong floodlights is terrible and spoils the artistic details of Sciortino's genius.

The visitor has only a tight space in which to view the statue, with about a metre of floor space in front of it.

The verve, movement and kinetic energy of the statue are all but stunted at the spot where it is being displayed.

The sculpture, completed in 1904 and bought from Sciortino who was then living in Rome by the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce was presented by the society to the government as a gift to the Maltese people. It was inaugurated in 1908.

No one took the trouble, when the sculpture was removed, to inform the society of the removal, for restoration purposes. That was in 2000. The plinth on which the bronze stood is today still bare, depriving visitors from enjoying this excellent work of art by Sciortino (1879-1947).

Heritage Malta said a bronze replica of the sculpture is being produced.

The bronze was transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts to be restored by Sante Guido, and kept there to avoid further deterioration.

Characterised by movement and verve, the statue shows three Parisian street urchins tugging at each other. Its striking naturalness has always attracted people's attention.

The restoration was carried out under the superintendence of the then Museums Department and the Valletta Rehabilitation Project.

Top ceramist Gabriel Caruana spurned the idea that sculptures displayed in public areas should be removed to be exhibited in museums.

Such public monuments should be enjoyed by as many members of the public as possible, he argued.

"Les Gavroches has been at the Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta for about 100 years and that is where it should be displayed.

"The bronze statue by Sciortino withstood the elements for so long and the place where it stood at the Upper Barrakka is a sheltered spot".

Referring to the Heritage Malta letter, Mr Caruana added:

"Heritage Malta is saying that it wants to make a copy of the statue to have it shown round schools and other places.

"I honestly cannot understand the artistic and cultural reasoning behind the production of such copies, which debase the very essence of the sculpture.

"If thousands of visitors had seen the Les Gavroches during the 2000 exhibition on Sciortino at the Fine Arts Museum, as claimed by Heritage Malta, just imagine how many more thousands of tourists - not to mention Maltese - have been deprived of their enjoyment of the statue.

"Moreover, copies of the original would give the impression that Sciortino was the only Maltese artist who deserves such recognition, which is not the case.

"What could have been done to the statue was to add the missing 'leash' that the boy on the left, as you look at the statue, held in his right hand to pull a toy dog".

With the line of thinking that was pronounced, one should also take away other bronzes, like Lord Strickland's and Churchill's. But then where would one exhibit so many statues, Mr Caruana asked.

Paul Axiaq, president of the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, said the society's next meeting would include on the agenda the question why it took so long to place a replica of the Les Gavroches at the Barrakka.

"Les Gavroches is such a superb work that you could literally name the Upper Barrakka Gardens for this masterpiece.

"It was the central attraction of the Upper Barrakka as far as monuments go," Mr Axiaq said.

Mr Axiaq said the society was not consulted about the transfer of the statue to the museum.

A spokesman for the firm Sante Guido Restauro, the Italian restorers based in Rome, said that during the preliminary stage of the restoration process in the early months of 2000, it became apparent that the level of corrosion was such that it was decided jointly by the restorers and the then Museums Department to transfer the statue to the Fine Arts Museum and keep it there.

The sculpture was shifted to the museum in the summer of 2000 and the conservation project completed in December that year.

Dott. Sante Guido wanted the restoration to be his millennium gift to the Maltese people and the painstaking task was done free of charge.

A spokesman for Sante Guido explained that the principal cause of the corrosion was its environmental context. It was decided to carry out the restoration inside the museum and not at the gardens as the level of salt content in the air during the night in summer was so high that the salt was undoing the restoration work of the previous day.

"One cannot compare one bronze statue with another when one compares levels of corrosion. Much also depends on the composition of the bronze as well as its thickness, among other factors.

"After a bronze is revamped, several layers of protective coating are applied, with a brush, as a sacrificial layer.

"It is extremely important that whoever is commissioned to do a copy of the restored original be highly conversant with conservation techniques. If the wrong materials to make the mould are used, the chances are that the restoration would be ruined," the spokesman noted.

Dott. Guido was consulted during the initial stages of the making of the cast but was not responsible for selecting the maker of the replica and the subsequent stages.

For the reproduction of Les Gavroches, Sante Guido Restauro had proposed an Italian firm that does reproductions for the Capitolini Museums, the National Museum and the Vatican Museums.

But that proposal was not accepted.

The Italian firm would have been able to come to Malta to do the mould, make a copy in Rome and deliver that copy to Malta within four to five weeks, the Sante Guido spokesman said.

A couple of tourist guides told The Times that one of the first things visitors armed with guide books asked them was to have a look at the Les Gavroches.

"One can see the deep disappointment in their faces when they find that the Sciortino gem had been taken away," one of the guides recalled.

A reader of The Times who went to have a look at the statue after the feature appeared in this newspaper noted that Heritage Malta had objected to the use of the verb 'banished' used by The Times to describe the fate of the Les Gavroches.

"They can have another "b" word, if they do not like 'banished'," the reader said. "'Burial' would be just as appropriate," he said caustically.

Most visitors to the Museum of Fine Arts do not bother to go down to the basement, where the Les Gavroches is displayed, one reason being that many hate using stairs, and also because it is not immediately clear that the basement forms part of the museum.