Bust of Pope Pius V

The secretary of the Valletta local council in his letter History of a Bust (October 7), in answer to another correspondent, made a very serious and wrong accusation. He said that the bust of Pope Pius V had been abandoned "amid broken partitions and rubble in Dar l-Annona when the place was temporarily used as a store by the VRP in the early 1990s". He also implied that nothing had been done to protect heritage "before local councils and Heritage Malta were even established".

Dar L-Annona was never used as a store by VRP and was never left in the state claimed by the council. On the contrary we carried out substantial restoration to the room, which had been abandoned before we took it over. We used the historic room only as an office for some months (to allow our original building in Melita Street to be used by the museum). I repeat we only used it as a temporary office and later as an exhibition space. It was later taken over by Maltapost after we moved out to our permanent office.

When we took over the room the bust was lying on its small pedestal to one side, resting against the wall, almost on the verge of toppling over. It was VRP, and may I say, myself personally, that insisted with the Museum of Fine Arts to take the bust to the museum. Dominic Cutajar immediately accepted. VRP then took care to transfer the bust to the museum.

As for the new monument base made by the council we will, in the spirit of collaboration, refrain from commenting. However, just for the record, since the secretary outlined its "history", VRP had in the past made an alternative proposal to place the monument on the outer part of the pavement in front of St John's Co-Cathedral, roughly in front of the Kantina Café today.

It is such a pity that once more the council tried to snipe at the work of VRP, basing itself on completely wrong facts. Valletta needs the collaboration of all its stakeholders if it is to live up to its name of a world heritage city.