While preparations for the swearing-in ceremony of the new President were in full swing, management at the Grand Master’s Palace was scrambling to locate three antique vases and a clock that had inexplicably gone missing, a senior curator testified.
“We were literally crazy, going round the palace looking for the items,” said Emmanuel Magro Conti, senior manager at Heritage Malta and senior curator at the Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta where the precious artefacts went missing last month.
The curator was testifying in criminal proceedings against Ljubica Zivkovic, a 52-year-old Serbian national who is pleading not guilty to the aggravated theft, unlawful possession of the cultural artefacts as well as breaching a probation order handed down previously over similar charges.
The accused, identified in court as “Ms Lju,” had stepped in some five or six months earlier as a project manager, replacing an architect who had been overseeing refurbishment works at the palace.
At the time, over three hundred doors and windows were being restored and other works were carried out on marble and tile surfaces.
While works were ongoing the area was an “open site,” accessible to architects, workers, curators and all those who were involved in the project.
Zivkovic was trusted by the company that employed her and she worked without supervision.
“She did her work well,” said Magro Conti, explaining that the accused needed no prompting to point out any faulty works to the workers and her superiors.
“She was fine…. It was the first time we did not need to point out bad workmanship ourselves.”
So when on April 4 two vases, formerly adorning a chest of drawers in the Grand Master’s Salotto, were suddenly noticed missing without the senior curator’s authorization, an alarm bell rang.
After checking the other rooms at the Palace, the officials realized that a third vase and an antique clock were also unaccounted for.
“Every single item cannot be moved, even within the same room, unless under express authorization,” explained the senior official who also presented inventory cards kept by Heritage Malta, recording details of every artefact.
Cleaners and staff at the palace denied touching any of the items.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Rachel Tua, the witness explained that at the time of the alleged theft, there were security cameras in the corridors but none in the President’s office from where two of the artefacts were stolen.
A security guard kept watch outside another room from where the other two items went missing.
Suspect walked out 'back bent slightly'
The missing items were a Sicilian 17th-century maiolica bomba, an Italian 18th-century maiolica bomba, a 20th-century vase and an 18th-century English George III table/bracket clock by Thomas Hunter of London.
Police used CCTV footage from the palace as well as photos uploaded to social media by tourists who had visited the premises in the previous days to narrow down their search.
A photo posted online by a tourist showed that all three vases were still in place on March 21. But another taken on March 23 showed that one of the vases was no longer visible.
Using that information, police combed through CCTV imagery.
Footage from the palace showed a “woman” entering a room leading to another room where the vases were displayed on March 22 at around 3:30pm.
She went out, then in again ten minutes later.
She carried a bag with a jacket draped over it and walked “upright,” when she entered the room. She reappeared, “walking slightly bent” as though carrying something heavy, when she walked out, testified prosecuting officer Inspector Christina Delia.
On March 26, the suspect again entered the room through a different door.
Minutes later, she walked out, “the size of her bag particularly bigger.”
The woman walked towards the security guard, stopping to speak while she held the bag behind her back.
“She walked sideways so that the security would not notice the bag,” testified Delia.
Investigators tracked down details of the suspect.
An arrest warrant was issued and the woman, later identified as Zivkovic, was arrested. She denied any involvement in the thefts, insisting that she had only been to those rooms to check if works had been done.
She was subsequently arraigned and remanded in custody.
But investigations continued.
Police came across a message on Zivkovic’s mobile phone which she had sent to a third party, saying that she was going to Sliema to get money from an antique dealer whose number was saved in her contacts under the name of “Tony Stivala Scrooge.”
Police also discovered that on March 24 and 26 Zivkovic had taken a cab from Valletta to Sliema, stopping at The Strand which was a “minute’s walk” away from Stivala’s antiques shop.
The elderly shopowner was subsequently charged with unlawful possession of the stolen artefacts and was handed a suspended sentence upon his early guilty plea, insisting that he had no idea that they were stolen property.
“As soon as I saw them I liked them”
The accused sometimes went to Stivala’s shop with collectibles and she occasionally would pawn a watch for some €50 or so, the shopowner said when testifying against Zivkovic.
The woman, whom he referred to as “Buba,” lived close to his home and she would sometimes drop by at his Sliema shop to get a ride back home.
When she brought two vases and a clock, he immediately “liked them.”
“They were pretty and they’d be nice in my house,” Stivala thought, not knowing that they were stolen.
She had not taken all three artefacts at once but he had paid some €1100 in all.
Asked by presiding Magistrate Nadine Sant Lia whether he knew if the accused had been going through hard times, the witness replied “not really.”
The accused would sometimes ask if she could help herself to a drink from the small private bar at his shop and he would simply tell her, “yes, go ahead.”
But they never discussed any personal matters, concluded the witness.
The case continues.
Attorney General lawyer Nicholas Degaetano together with Inspectors Christina Delia and Daryl Borg and Kurt Farrugia for superintendent of cultural heritage prosecuted.
Lawyer Rachel Tua was defence counsel.