Two early studies of the Tritons’ Fountain made by sculptor Vincent Apap ahead of the construction of the actual iconic monument are going up for auction this month.

The two small statues, one formed by Apap in gesso and the other in bronze, are being sold at auction by the Apap family and are expected to go under the hammer between June 12 and 17 at Obelisk auction house with a starting bid price set at €20,000.

John Apap, the artist’s son, recalls being eight years old when his father was bringing the three iconic mermen that have heralded countless people into Malta’s capital for decades.

“As his children, we were not involved in his artistic life, but I used to go with him, especially in the summer and I remember climbing up them when they were still in plaster,” he said.

“I remember his process, he started with an armature and covered them in plaster, then he began to sculpt, and they were very big. When the time came to send them to the foundry, they had to cut them up. First the head and the arms, then the half bodies and finally the legs – or rather the fins.”

Apap recalls the family sharing a quiet moment together right after the fountain was opened to the public.

A miniature cost in bronze was gifted to Vincent Apap by the same foundry that cast the fountain. Photo courtesy of Obelisk Auctions

“There was no inauguration or anything of the sort. We went at around midnight, my sisters, my mother and myself and of course my father had driven us there,” he said.

“There was nobody around, no people, no buses and we just went to have a look at it because he hadn’t yet seen it properly in place.”

“I still feel proud every time I pass by it. There are a hell of a lot of statues that my father did in and around Valletta but that one is iconic and I still get a thrill whenever I go by, I still think to myself ‘prosit dad’.”

Apap says that the gesso piece was hand sculpted by his father as an early model for the fountain, while the bronze piece was gifted to the artist by the Napolitan foundry Fonderia Laganà, the same foundry that cast the fountain itself in bronze.

Is it bittersweet to let these reminders of his father’s work go?

“It’s about time that somebody else enjoys them,” Apap replies.

“The thing is, you decide to do it, but you’re never really happy that you’ve done it.”

A miniature of the Tritons’ fountain moulded by Vincent Apap out of gesso. Photo courtesy of Obelisk Auctions

Asked if he would like to see the pieces acquired for a museum and be displayed somewhere to be enjoyed by the public, Apap says yes, but with some trepidation.

Some time ago, he admits, he and his sisters donated some 80 pieces of his late father’s work to the museum of fine arts, but only a few of the pieces are ever displayed, he says.

“I don’t know where the other 76 or so pieces we gave them are,” Apap said.

“Dad was taught by (Antonio) Sciortino, who has a room in MUZA dedicated to him and I wanted the same for my father and my Uncle Willie (20th-century painter Willie Apap). But they never got round to it.”

I still get a thrill whenever I go by, I still think to myself ‘prosit dad’- Vincent Apap's son John

John recalls his father as an innate artist with a photographic memory that could make a quick study of any person he met.

The artists, he added, were filled with sorrow when the fountain was broken in 1978.

“He was extremely sorry when they broke it,” Apap said.

“He wasn’t the type to speak very much, but he was devastated. They did eventually fix it at the drydocks, which was pretty good because you can’t weld bronze.

“But because the arms were broken, they added a pillar in the middle for the water to go up to the basin. Now every artist has a vision, if you take or remove something, it spoils the effect.”

The Tritons’ Fountain was lit up in the tricolore on Friday, Italy’s national day. Photo: Mario Mintoff/Photocity