The war memorial in Victoria spent six years in a warehouse after it was brought over to Gozo a couple of years after the end of World War II because of indecision over where it should be located.

The seven-metre high monument was eventually inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on May 7, 1954. It will now be one of the landmarks of the royal visit to Malta that starts tomorrow, although it will be His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh who will visit Gozo this time round and not the Queen.

In preparation for the visit, the memorial has just been conserved by Robert Cassar and James Licari, conservators from ReCoop, the Restoration and Conservation Cooperative.

One of the possibilities in siting the monument had been to dismantle part of the Banca Giuratale but eventually a tree in the middle of It-Tokk, the main square in Victoria, made way for the statue.

Apart from the Gozitans who lost their lives during WWII, the statue represents Christ the King because the Gozitans had wanted to have a statue of Christ similar to the one by Antonio Sciortino at the Mall in Floriana.

The four high reliefs representing airmen, civilians, the army and seamen, as well as the figure of Christ on top, were cast in bronze at the Fonderia Buongirolani in Rome, the foundry which had cast the statue of the Floriana Christ the King in 1917.

The high reliefs and the Christ were designed and modelled by Carlo Pisi of Rome. Paul Pace, a Gozitan residing in the Eternal City, had come up with the idea of having a statue of Christ the King in a pose of benediction. Pace was related to the artist by marriage to his daughter.

The design of the monument was chosen by an ad hoc committee chaired by Paul Portelli which met regularly at the former Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Victoria. This was not the only work of art that Pisi was commissioned to do on the sister island. His other works include the bronze altar canopy at the Basilica of St George in Victoria which is a copy of the one at St Peter's in the Vatican and the four marble statues on the parvis of the church at Ta' Pinu.

The money for the monument was collected from among the Gozitan public. The bronze parts and the transport to Malta from Italy cost £1,350.

It seems the fortunes of this monument are tied to the visits of Her Majesty. In fact, prior to her visit to the island in 1992, the edifice was "cleaned" and given a coating of linseed oil by public works employees.

"The harsh method of cleaning damaged the original bronze patina and the linseed oil seeped into the hardstone base. As it dried, the oil formed a thick coating and caking especially in the folds of the drapes," Mr Cassar said.

Mr Licari explained that after removing the layer of caked linseed oil, the bronze was cleaned and stabilised, given layers of protective coating and a final wax coating. The stone pedestal was cleaned of the oil and smudge.

The conservation was sponsored by HSBC and supported by the Ministry for Gozo.

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