Back Home Project

The move of Heritage Malta’s National Museum of Fine Arts from its current location in South Street to the Auberge d’Italie is now well in hand. The museum’s curators, together with the museum’s library, have already relocated to the the Auberge. This will ensure the necessary on-site support services as the project moves ahead. Heritage Malta has also taken over other parts of the building, including a venue in Melita Street, which has already started hosting a number of cultural activities and exhibitions. During Notte Bianca this location was used to showcase a contained but highly informative display on Maltese traditional music, while it is currently hosting a temporary comparative display of Christmas cribs.

Much work has been happening behind the scenes throughout the past year. This includes a series of ongoing consultation meetings with stakeholders and heritage operators. A brief for the procurement of design services is currently in its final stages of preparation and will be published soon. Heritage Malta’s professional staff will be collaborating with external and international expertise for the implementation of design, content layout and project branding.

The University College of London’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage is also providing consultation and technical expertise on the optimum environment for the proposed storage facilities for the national collection at the Auberge d’Italie.

The project was officially announced in November 2011. It is referred to as Back Home since the first Malta museum, including what was then the Fine Arts Section, was established at the Auberge d’Italie in 1925. This transfer, happening in phases over the coming years, means a return back home to where the Fine Arts section was born.