Heritage Malta prides itself on being the “guardian of over 8,000 years of history that not only looks towards the heritage it curates to ensure its longevity but also towards the public and the future generations it wishes to inspire”. So, the public is justified in asking how heritage items can go missing.
The news that two rare gold medals were recently stolen from the Maritime Museum and sustained “irreversible damage” when they were recovered shocked all those who have the preservation of Maltese heritage at heart. This theft was quickly followed by the announcement by Heritage Malta that three vases and a clock costing €13,000 had gone missing from the Grand Master’s Palace.
These security failures are even more severe as the Maritime Museum reopened its doors in February after four years for a new year-long exhibition. Similarly, the Grand Master’s Palace was reopened to the public earlier this year, following five years of intense restoration. What focus was made by Heritage Malta in these restoration projects to ensure adequate security to protect the country’s heritage items?
The irony is palpable: Heritage Malta responsible for ensuring that unique historical items are preserved for posterity, has become the victim of looters who overcame security hurdles with apparent ease.
To answer the question as to why precious heritage items are missing from our museums and historical buildings, it is critical to understand the opaque and outdated management of our heritage buildings, which can lead to thefts.
Museums and historical buildings often only display a small proportion of their collections. The remaining items are stored behind the scenes at the museum or other storage places. Staff work to catalogue, conserve and curate objects. These spaces can often serve as dynamic centres of research and learning.
Occasionally, people donate legacies to our museums to ensure that their invaluable heritage items are catalogued and preserved for people to enjoy. These benefactors understandably trust Heritage Malta’s ability to do whatever it takes to ensure that rogues do not loot these heritage items.
The government must ensure that Heritage Malta undertakes a professional and in-depth audit to detail the exact inventory of the items it safeguards. This must include taking measurements, weights, photographs, and assessments of the condition of every single heritage item.
This audit conducted by experts must also make conservation recommendations and input the information into a database. Heritage items must then be given unique numbers and catalogued. Of course, physical security experts must also be roped in to ensure that the looting of historical items by staff or outsiders is made as difficult as possible.
These meticulous operations demand considerable time and resources, luxuries that museum staff often lack. Prioritising public expenditure projects can frequently lead to budget cuts, impacting experienced heritage employee recruitment, retention and work continuity.
Without explicit documentation and reengineered heritage management practices that include an effective security system, there can be no accountability for any given object.
Internationally, high-profile thefts of historical items are not uncommon. The robbery of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911 by a handyman made sensational news. In 2004, the theft of The Scream, the iconic painting by Edvard Munch, stolen from the Munch Museum, was recovered two years later.
Heritage Malta is at a crossroads, with its relevance and reputation at stake. Now is the time for it to put its house in order to create an ethical future that safeguards our heritage items for future generations.