Leading Caravaggio experts from around the world have rallied together to request an investigation into the impact of the ongoing works at St John’s Co-Cathedral on the Italian painter’s work.

Last week, art historian and Caravaggio expert Keith Sciberras flagged the fact that the tapestry hall under construction is set to irreversibly obstruct a window that overlooks Caravaggio’s The Beheading of St John.

The cathedral’s representatives countered that the window is kept permanently shuttered, saying that the works will not impact the painting or viewing experience in any way.

However, 28 leading Caravaggio scholars and art curators have taken exception to the works in progress, putting their name to an open letter penned by Sciberras and sent to St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation president Monsignor Emmanuel Agius, expressing their concern over the impact that this will have on the painting.

The letter argues that the works will “obliterate the original line of light that Caravaggio took into account” when working on the painting, insisting that “such impact cannot be permitted under any grounds within such a major historic space”.

Saying that the curatorial decision to keep the window shuttered is one they respect, despite it being “controversial at its onset”, the authors describe the plans to permanently block the window as “both scandalous and outrageous”.

‘Investigate the matter with great urgency’

The letter concludes by asking Agius to “investigate the matter with great urgency”. It is signed by 28 Caravaggio experts, among them academics, art curators and leading figures at top art museums around the world.

These include the directors of the National Gallery in London and Rome’s Galleria Borghese, high-ranking figures at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Frick Collection in New York as well as renowned Caravaggio scholars from several universities in Europe and North America, among others.

Speaking to Times of Malta, Bert Treffers, one of the letter’s signatories, said that permanently blocking the window “threatens to cancel its (the painting’s) real sense, not only as a supreme work of art but also as an extreme expression of the religious role of the Order and, even more so, as a token of the historical significance of Malta itself”.

These concerns echo those of HOASA, the History of Art and Fine Arts Students’ Association, who in a statement described the decision to obstruct the window as “an insult to the artistic and cultural significance that this historical site represents”.

Sciberras told Times of Malta that he has also written to UNESCO and to the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage to inform them of the matter.

Repeated attempts to contact Agius for comment were unsuccessful.