Din l-Art Ħelwa offers to match Fort Tigné sale price, take over historic site
Organisation says it is prepared to raise the funds to stop the site being turned into a hotel
Updated 11.01am
Heritage NGO Din l-Art Ħelwa has offered to match the €2.5 million sale price agreed between investment group MIDI and mega-developer Joseph Portelli for the lease of Fort Tigné and take over the running of the historic site.
MIDI announced earlier this month that it has entered into a promise of sale with Portelli’s firm, J Portelli Projects Ltd, to transfer the lease of the site to the developer, who plans to turn it into a hotel.
There are currently 75 years left on the lease for the site.
In a statement Tuesday, Din l-Art Ħelwa said it had written to Prime Minister Robert Abela on Friday, “presenting a concrete, constructive and financially viable solution for the future of Fort Tigné”, but had so far received no response.
The NGO wants to take over the fort to “preserve, restore and repurpose it exclusively for cultural, educational and community purposes, making it accessible to all”.
The organisation said it had made the offer following “alarming” press reports about the sale of the historic site and had stressed to the PM that commercial exploitation of the fort would “constitute an irreversible loss to Malta’s cultural patrimony”.
It characterised the planned sale as a “direct contradiction of the State’s own constitutional and international cultural commitments”, noting the fort formed part of Malta’s UNESCO Tentative List – a preliminary list of sites a country plans to nominate for world heritage status.
The offer comes days after the organisation expressed “grave concern” over the deal to transfer the fort to Portelli, when it stressed that the site’s protection should be “protected at all costs”.
Din l-Art Ħelwa executive president Patrick Calleja said the NGO was “prepared to raise the necessary funds to secure Fort Tigné for the nation and for posterity”.
“To allow a monument of potential World Heritage status to fall into the hands of a speculator is inconceivable and an abdication of the State's constitutional duty to safeguard our cultural patrimony”, he said.
“We call on all government ministers, the leader of the Opposition and members of parliament, political parties, industry leaders, intellectuals, and most importantly of all, the public, who are the true stakeholders in our national heritage, to make their voices heard in support of preserving Fort Tigné as a public heritage asset”, said Calleja.
“Silence is not an option; it is complicity.”
The group reiterated its “urgent request” for a meeting with the prime minister and that it remained “hopeful” for a response.
In a statement later on Tuesday morning, ADPD expressed its support for the Din l-Art Ħelwa offer, saying the initiative would afford the historic site the "protection, honour and dignity it deserves".
"Our history and identity are priceless and should not be for sale", the party said.