Les Gavroches, one of the most admired bronze statues that used to grace the Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta, has been banished to the internal yard of the Archaeology Museum, where few visitors, if any, get the chance to feast their eyes on this vibrating Antonio Sciortino masterpiece.
Full of movement and verve, the statue showing three Parisian street urchins tugging at each other was removed several years ago from the Upper Barrakka to be restored by the well-known restorer Sante Guido.
The restoration was completed in 2000 and the idea was to keep the original in a museum and have a copy done to be displayed in place of the original statue at the Upper Barrakka.
Dott. Guido, who has restored other public monuments in Malta, revamped the Les Gavroches at no charge as a sign of goodwill to the people of Malta.
The restoration was carried out under the superintendence of the then Museums Department and the Valletta Rehabilitation Project.
Despite the passage of three years since the restoration was completed, all that the thousands of visitors see who call daily at the Upper Barrakka gardens, is the bare pedestal and a ridiculously small colour photograph of the statue and a note nailed to the wall nearby saying that the work of art has been removed for restoration.
Completed in 1904, the Les Gavroches work was bought from Sciortino who was then living in Rome by the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce for the princely sum of £120, which included dock charges in Malta and packing.
The society presented the statue to the government as a gift to the Maltese people and it was inaugurated in 1908.
Art historian Keith Sciberras said when contacted that he agreed that certain statues which had suffered heavily from pollution should be placed in a museum and replaced by a copy.
"The Les Gavroches is one such example and so is the Al Gardi bronze high relief that used to hang on the façade of St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta.
"The Al Gardi is now exhibited at the St John's Co-Cathedral Museum.
"While there has been a remarkable improvement in the way greater attention is being given to public monuments and their worth recognised, the next step is for a proper maintenance programme to be put in motion."
Every monument that is restored should be seen to every couple of years. Bronze is an organic material and corrosion is inevitable due to pollution, the prime culprits around the capital being road traffic and shipping and facilities in Grand Harbour, Dr Sciberras stressed.
Incidentally, the place vacated by the Al Gardi high relief is still bare.
In the catalogue for the exhibition entitled Antonio Sciortino: Monuments and Public Sculptures held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta in 2000 and curated by Dennis Vella, author Vella noted the numerous times Sciortino had to plead with the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce to forward to him part of the sum of money agreed on the sale to enable him to pay his rent and honour the bills from the Nelli foundry of Rome, where the statue was to be cast.
There can be no doubt about the importance of the Les Gavroches statue: Vella notes in the catalogue that a miniature bronze copy of the statue was presented by the government to Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain in 1951.
The statue was featured on a postage stamp on January 23, 1956 while the then Telemalta Corporation reproduced an image of the statue on one of its telephone cards.
Sciortino was born in Zebbug on January 25, 1879. His father used to till the land near Mosta, where Antonio used to tend goats.
Following early art studies in Malta Sciortino specialised in sculpture and monumental architecture at the Regio Istituto di Belle Arti in Rome where he became a professional sculptor and teacher.
Sciortino died in Malta in 1947, having spent the war years here working as Curator of Fine Arts. Shortly before his death, he bequeathed a considerable number of his works to the people of Malta.
Several of his works are exhibited at the National Museum of Fine Arts in South Street, Valletta and some were shown at the EXPO 70 in Osaka, Japan.
An exhibition of works by Sciortino set up by Heritage Malta and curated by Dennis Vella will be on at the National Museum of Archaeology in Republic Street, Valletta till the end of this month.
Called The Joy of Movement, the exhibition is being held on the occasion of the 10th edition of the Games of the Small States of Europe that were concluded on Saturday.