Updated 7.45pm, adds government reply to PN statement

Premature opening of Malta’s €10 million MUŻA national arts museum against expert advice is being blamed for the mould outbreak which has now forced officials to remove more than 100 paintings. 

Some of the historic building’s one-metre thick walls are soaked and it will take months to reverse the situation, a conservator said.

“We had told the powers-that-be not to open the museum last year because the building was so damp that a mould outbreak could not be avoided,” a senior official said.

“However, despite our warnings, the government insisted on officially inaugurating it in November, fearing political fallout due to earlier promises.”

What happened at MUŻA?

The museum, at the restored Auberge d’Italie, which missed its opening deadline several times, is still unfinished, with a number of halls not open to the public.

Parts of the 16th-century building were left open to the elements during years of restoration, sustaining flooding several times. 

“There were instances where the upper floors of the museum were completely under water due to the incompetence of the contractors and lack of surveillance by government officials,” a source told Times of Malta.

The worrying situation was reported several times to the government, particularly the Justice Ministry, which was responsible for the project, the source added.

Despite the installation of a €400,000 climate control system inside the museum, officials said the problem cannot be rectified until the building dries up.

Last week, Heritage Malta – the government cultural heritage agency – said it had removed some 60 paintings from the national collection due to “internal environment control problems”, but a spokeswoman said yesterday that the number of exhibits removed so far reached 130.

When will the problem be resolved?

While insisting “there is no infestation problem” at MUŻA, the spokeswoman said that “adverse effects, if any (cases of slight mould)” are all reversible and will be tended by Heritage Malta conservators.

“The situation will be back to normal in a few weeks’ time,” she said.

Heritage Malta denied that the infestation happened due to lack of monitoring of the climate control system and lack of reporting by those responsible for the collection.

“The claim of lack of monitoring is also wrong. It is precisely because of constant monitoring that such technical problems were detected immediately,” she said.

What does the art community say?

Art experts contest Heritage Malta's statement.

“It is true that at first, mould could be microscopic and difficult to spot. However, you don’t remove 130 paintings at once and at the same time insist that officials detected the problems immediately,” one expert said.

The History of Art and Fine Arts Students' Association (HoASA) which works to increase awareness of artistic heritage, said the mould was just the latest in an "undeniable list of shortcomings".

"A project that opened past its date, opening its doors months later to find artworks scattered around in a disorderly manner," it said.

"Apart from that, the museum has a noticeable lack of labelling and the layout is incoherent."

It stressed that works being removed for 'climate control' should have happened "much before this issue arose".

"A professional museum is meant to safeguard its possessions and proper measures should be taken into consideration to keep the environment stable and favourable for the artworks. (not just for works within the museum but even when works are in storage).

"It is important that when dealing with our history and artistic heritage, no shortcuts should ever be taken on such projects."

Originally planned to be completed by the end of 2017, in time for the inauguration of the Valletta 2018 celebrations, the opening was postponed several times and was hit by severe delays.

Though some of its main halls were still not opened to the public, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat officially inaugurated MUŻA last November, a few weeks before the end of the Valletta 2018 programme.

PN statement

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said the Culture Minister should give a detailed explanation of what was being done to rectify the situation and whether any artistic works had been damaged.

It said it was obvious that the opening of MUŻA had been just a political gimmick. It was done hastily and against the advice of Heritage Malta.

Government's reply

In a reply, the government said the building, which was 450 years old, included a number of technological advances and had controlled temperatures installed.

It was through such technologies and at a particular time in the midst of the Maltese summer that an increase in the level of humidity was indicated.

As a measure of prevention and as a precaution, it was decided that a number of works would not remain on show until it was ascertained that the situation was back to normal. This was expected in a short time.

None of the works had been damaged, the government said.