They call him Bronson, Charles Bronson, but he’s no actor. Salvu Sammut is a sculptor who resembles the American thespian.

Salvu Sammut. Photo: Facebook

Unlike most actors, Sammut – a widower – shuns publicity and guards his privacy as if his life depends on it. But he enjoys talking about a skill he has: sculpting.

Sammut has always enjoyed tinkering with limestone and marble but never applied himself artistically to it.

However, about a dozen years ago, a friend asked him whether he could carve a round stone into the shape of a half moon. Not only did he cut the stone but also sculpted it in the shape of a face. Once finished, Sammut liked the outcome and realised he could sculpt.

“I liked the result and decided to attempt more sculpting,” he says.

His second piece depicted the four vices: wine, women, song and drink. This smallish limestone work shows a woman bending over and looking into a man’s head; the man has a cigarillo dangling from his mouth and, next to his face, are a beer mug and four playing cards.

Sammut’s busts are modelled on photographs he takes.

After these two initial pieces, Sammut started sculpting busts.

“I had photos of faces that I liked and these served as my models,” he explains.

He has produced several and two adorn his Mosta maisonette.

He then embarked on what has turned out to be his most controversial artworks – gargoyles. Sculpted in the style found in gothic cathedrals in Europe, Sammut’s gargoyles, strategically placed on his roof, have attracted considerable comment.

“Superstitious old ladies walk by, look up and cross themselves,” he says. “They seem to think the sculptures have something to do with the devil… but, of course, they don’t”.

His balconies are also decorated with carvings – camels, cows and horses – and also timely sculptures, such as a masked woman’s head.

It was only a matter of time before Sammut ‘graduated’ to life-size statues. His first was a naked woman that now stands in the landing of his flat.

His balconies are also decorated with carvings and also timely sculptures, such as a masked woman’s head.

His latest is still a work in progress and it’s his take on Michelangelo’s David. Begun last April, Sammut’s version is in limestone, is about three metres shorter and, unlike the original, the subject is looking straight ahead instead of left.

The reason for this is that this is not David’s face but Sammut’s son’s, Jesmar.

The explanation why this rendition is shorter than Michelangelo’s is because Sammut’s supplier gives him limestone blocks for free. His David is made of two pieces of limestone – the body is carved from one block and the head from another.

Sammut’s son, Jesmar, is the inspiration for his own version of Michelangelo’s David.

Sammut’s other passion is marble. He may sculpt in limestone but marble is what he uses to decorate his house. And the reason he gets his limestone free is that he buys so much marble from his supplier friend.

When his maisonette was still in shell form, he decided that black-veined marble would be his flooring. And he’s spent years measuring, cutting and laying slabs of marble as tiles. Not only that but he’s also attempted mosaics for the floor.

Sammut’s mosaic of Zeus in his hallway.

One of Sammut’s works in his sitting room.

There’s Zeus in the hallway and a bull’s head in the living room. Some walls have large, rectangular pieces of polished marble with engravings. The one in the living room shows the pyramids. In one bedroom, there’s an embracing couple and in the kitchen, the solar system is the focus.

“He loves creating things in marble and stone,” Jesmar says. “He enjoys working with them.”

Talented though he is, Sammut does not accept commissions. All his sculptures are stored in his workshop, a converted garage.

On most days, you’ll find him here sculpting a block of limestone and waving cheerfully to passers-by.

His workshop is littered with busts and various other sculptures.