After a recent price reduction due to over a hundred paintings being taken down for safekeeping after harmful mould break out, Claudia Scavuzzo enters MUŻA to see if things are as bad as they seem.  

My first time at MUŻA was not what I expected. Even though I knew an outbreak of mould meant some pieces of art were missing, the museum was still open so there should be lots of interesting things to see. Or so I thought.

After buying a ticket that was reduced to €3.50 due to “current restoration occurring in the building” and being told by the ticket office that I “might notice some works of art missing”, because of “conservation treatment”, I began to feel like I was being warned off entering.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of sufficient signs explaining where the exhibition started. Once I put my bag in one of the lockers provided on the left, I found myself going around the internal courtyard looking for the entrance, until a member of staff pointed me in the right direction. 

As I entered The Artist, the first room of the exhibition, I was overwhelmed by the number of art pieces positioned in front of me. They seemed packed together in quite a small space. 

However, I soon started noticing blank spaces with signs that read: "This work is out for conservation treatment." 

Now you see it, now you don't. One of the missing paintings at MUŻA. Photo: Instagram @cotarda

As I walked further along the exhibition, and up to the first floor, more and more paintings were missing. 

At first it was a couple of missing paintings here and there and then whole blank walls with signs saying, “This work is currently out for conservation treatment” or “Work in progress, we apologise for any inconvenience”.

The 'Europe' gallery which is marketed as "presenting Valletta as a gateway to European culture" showed two large paintings of Valletta. But they were surrounded by blank walls.

There were similar missing spots in the 'Mediterranean' and 'Empire' rooms.

I began to count the blank spaces and stopped when I reached 80.

Finally I reached an entire area of the museum with dozens of empty mountings  and only five paintings on show. It was quite a contrast to the same room shown on MUŻA's Facebook page just four months ago.

Some of the paintings that were still there also lacked any kind of description, leaving the viewer very confused as to what he or she was looking at. 

When I asked a member of staff why the walls were so empty, she was quick to reply that “conservation treatment is a procedure all antique paintings need to maintain their original beauty”. 

As I went around the different rooms, I asked other members of the public what they thought about the exhibition. A father visiting MUŻA with his son, told me he found it “quite interesting”, and when I asked him what he thought about the many empty spaces around the room he said, “maybe they are waiting for more paintings to arrive.” 

Signs explaining why paintings are missing

A couple from Italy was less impressed. "It’s not possible to present a museum in these conditions. It was terrible, so many of the paintings were missing.”

One member of a group of five young people said that the exhibition “should have been free” as “it’s not normal to have 70% of the artwork not on display.”