People who move to Malta and bring works of art or other cultural items with them will be able to take those items out of Malta once more without hindrance under legislation moved in parliament on Monday.

Cultural Minister Owen Bonnici told the House that several art collectors or other high net worth individuals wanted to move to Malta with their collections, but their advisers often warned that current regulations would make it difficult for them to take their collections out of Malta should they decide to return to their country of origin.

Those difficulties, he said, were now being removed thanks to amendments to the Cultural Heritage Act. 

The new law, he said, would also enable heirs to have such art works in Malta handed to them abroad if the owner died in Malta.

The bill provides that in the case of persons taking up residence in Malta, the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage shall issue a certificate guaranteeing that the government renounced the right of preference and the right to prohibit the re-exportation or movement of those cultural items outside Malta, for a period of ten years. That period can be renewed. The certificate would not apply for items that are of national importance to Malta, such as paintings previously whisked away from Malta.

The superintendent would need to be informed prior to the importation of such cultural property. Ownership must be proven and the items would be examined and registered by the Superintendent at the point of entry into Malta.

Opposition MP Julie Zahra said the wording of the bill was vague and needed to be tightened up, particularly when it came to what was meant by cultural items, residence and whether those bringing the items to Malta were people or legal entities. The wording of the bill also needed to ensure cultural items derived from crime were not brought to Malta, she said.

Zahra also insisted that Malta needed to ratify international conventions on the movement of cultural items across borders including the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and the 1995 Unidroit Convention on the theft and illegal export of cultural items.