Last Thursday Dr Tancred Gouder, former director of the Museums Department, passed away at the age of 66. He leaves behind him a lifetime's work of dedication to the management and protection of Malta's cultural patrimony.
The sense of loss felt by those who worked with him runs deep.
Dr Gouder's self-sacrificing and idealistic dedication to the message of cultural appreciation, coupled with his gentlemanly personality, rendered him a highly respected figure among his staff and colleagues. To his closest collaborators he was a source of constant professional encouragement and, above all, a sincere friend.
Dr Gouder's involvement in the Museums Department started in 1970, when he took up the post of assistant curator at the National Museum of Archaeology. His professional career reached its climax in 1990 when he was appointed Director of Museums, a post he retained for seven challenging but productive years.
Throughout his career he held positions of great responsibility, including Curator of Archaeology (which he held for 13 years), chairman of the Antiquities Board, chairman of the Gollcher Foundation, member of the UNESCO National Commission, of the Council of Europe and of the Fondazzjoni Memorja Kulturali.
In all these positions his professionalism and scholarship could always be depended upon, even in the most difficult circumstances.
Dr Gouder's achievements are all the more remarkable in view of the difficult conditions he was constantly forced to work in. At the start of his career the cultural heritage sector in Malta was characterised by poor public funding and by a severe scarcity of trained professional staff. The problems besetting Malta's heritage were furthermore worsening incrementally, under the combined impact of exploding land development, the strain of mass tourism and an aging museums and sites infrastructure.
With characteristic vision and doggedness, Dr Gouder set out to respond to these problems in a characteristically positive manner.
Dr Gouder has the distinction of being the first curator in the history of the Museums Department to have obtained formal post-graduate qualifications and training in archaeology. This he obtained by studying at the Università La Sapienza and at the Istituto Pontificio (both in Rome).
Appreciating the importance of quality professional training in cultural heritage management, Dr Gouder ensured that curatorial staff joining the department thereafter had received appropriate scientific and academic training. He also pursued a policy of encouraging employees to pursue their studies and training abroad to acquaint themselves with ongoing developments in the sector, particularly in Europe. This enlightened and far-sighted policy has resulted over the years in a drastic improvement in the professional profile of the department.
Dr Gouder was responsible for the initiation and launch of some important cultural heritage projects. Major initiatives included the launching of the Hypogeum conservation project in the late 1980s, the Mnajdra restoration project following the damage incurred in 1994, and the upgrade of the exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology. He also reviewed, as Director of Museums, the restoration of Caravaggio's St Jerome and the opening of the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa.
An important aspect of Dr Gouder's policy was the maintenance by the department of close scientific ties with reputable academic institutions locally and overseas, both in the field of scholarship and of restoration. In this respect his most significant coup was the relaunching of a study and restoration project at the sites of Tas-Silg and San Pawl Milqi. This he achieved through a fruitful collaboration with the recently departed Dott.ssa Antonia Ciasca of the Missione Archeologica Italiana a Malta and by drawing important financial and human investments from various Italian state organisations.
Above all, Dr Gouder should be remembered for his untiring drive to start a radical, structural reform of the entire public cultural heritage sector in Malta. It is consoling to know that in these last difficult months of his life, he could witness the launch of a new Cultural Heritage Act - a crowning achievement to the efforts he had courageously started so many years before.
The Museums Department pays tribute to Dr Gouder who will be remembered as a great benefactor and a sincere friend.