No paintings were damaged when rainwater seeped through the ceiling of the national art museum and into one of the main viewing galleries last month.

A Heritage Malta spokesperson told Times of Malta that curators at Valletta’s MUŻA had confirmed that none of the pieces in the national collection had suffered any water damage.

The heritage agency was contacted after footage emerged of water raining down from the ceiling of one of the main viewing rooms in the national gallery.

The spokesperson said the situation was brought under control within minutes.

Malta has been soaked with heavy rains in recent weeks as the island experienced the wettest autumn in more than 20 years.

Roads and major projects struggled to keep up with severe flooding and the €10 million museum, at the restored Auberge d’Italie at the top of Merchants Street, seems to have also sprung a leak.

Sharing a video of the incident on social media, Facebook user Antoine Borg Micallef said the “eye-watering scene” had occurred when friends of his were sightseeing in the capital and decided to visit the national museum. MUŻA was officially inaugurated in December 2018, months behind its original deadline.

 In August 2019, more than 60 works of art, some of them prestigious, had to be removed in a preventive measure after the museum developed a mould problem.

Parts of the 16th-century building had been left open to the elements during years of restoration, sustaining flooding several times.