A drive to retrieve stolen and lost treasures from the Knights’ period is under way as Heritage Malta does its “utmost” to bring back lost treasures.

Hundreds of items, from furniture to paintings, armour and majolica vases, were taken during British rule in Malta, according to Heritage Malta COO Kenneth Gambin.

“Heritage Malta is doing its utmost so that what can be brought back in whatever way comes back,” he said.

While Malta “always wanted” the items returned, the effort has now been “declared” and stepped up, he said, echoing the agency chairman’s inauguration speech at the Grand Master’s Palace.

There is no dedicated fund to buy them back but the national agency “utilises the necessary finances when a case crops up”, Gambin said.

We know they exist and, in some cases, we know who has them- Heritage Malta COO Kenneth Gambin

A Mattia Preti painting recently bought back by Heritage Malta from an auction in New York cost €1.3 million alone.

The haemorrhage of historical items happened most intensively in the first 50 to 60 years of the British occupation of Malta – in the first half of the 19th century.

“We know they exist and, in some cases, we know who has them,” Gambin said, adding that most of the items are now in the hands of private owners, both locally and abroad.

They were pilfered or sold by different governors, so not necessarily illegally, he pointed out. Whatever the case, it is “right” that they are returned to Malta. “Wouldn’t you want your things back?”

In recent years, it has recovered from the UK human bones and other material from Xemxija, which had “gone abroad ‘temporarily’ and never made it back… until now”.

Excavation notes and photographs of the Għajn Tuffieħa Roman Baths brought back from a university in London following lengthy discussions in 2014-2016. Right: Boxes of human bones from Xemxija, brought back home from the UK.

Recovering items from public auctions

Heritage Malta has also been recovering items from public auctions that it knows used to be in the Grand Master’s Palace, in Valletta.

Now, with its major restoration project coming to fruition and the realisation that some items were “glaringly missing” and the knowledge of where they are, Heritage Malta was going after them, Gambin said.

It has been approaching current owners in a “long and difficult” process that has been done before, he said, aware that “we may touch legal problems”.

The items may be owned legally and the owners would not want to part with them, he explained.

“There are so many scenarios that have to be tackled on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Heritage Malta has, however, already persuaded some owners to donate their items when it proved that these were from auberges or the palace.

Gambin was cagey about disclosing the retrieval of items in the pipeline, saying merely that “something is cooking but we do not know if we will ever eat it…”

He describes the challenge of getting items returned as “difficult” but “right”.

“Time will tell to what degree we are successful. This depends also on how convincing we are and how reasonable are all those involved. We are obliged to do this,” he said.