The art of today is tomorrow's heritage

Many a legal notice is published without anyone batting so much as an eyelid. However, on November 3, just over a month ago, Legal Notice 266 was published in the Government Gazette, charting a new and exciting path in our endeavours to better promote, and add to, our uniquely rich cultural heritage.

The legal notice, also known as the Donations (National Heritage) Rules, 2006 and which will be brought into effect next year, was promulgated under the aegis of the Income Tax Act.

It represents to me a moment of personal pride and satisfaction. Allow me to give the background to it.

On September 28, 2004 I spoke on the adjournment in Parliament and called for a policy of acquisitions within the realm of widening cultural heritage. I had just returned from an intense, five-day visit to Paris, courtesy of the French government, and during which I met the top people from the cultural, political and legal establishments. Suffice it to say that I had meetings arranged with, among others, the top echelons of the main political parties, the members of the Conseil d'Etat, the French counterparts of our Attorney General and our Ombudsman, senior officials from the French foreign affairs and cultural ministries, and the director of the Louvre Museum.

It was the meeting with the latter that provided me with much food for thought on the need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to widening our cultural patrimony.

Apart from agreeing on the utility of exchange of visits of experts and museum curators between the Louvre and Heritage Malta, the director of the Louvre briefed me about, and gave me a copy of, a relatively recent French law that basically provides for substantial tax relief for those who donate objects of particular artistic or cultural value to the state.

Thus, any private individual or company will be eligible for a tax rebate equivalent to 90 per cent of the value of the object donated. A win-win situation: The person donating gets substantial fiscal relief and the cultural heritage of the state gets richer and larger. On my return I informed Mario Tabone, the indefatigable chairman of Heritage Malta, of this law and passed him a copy.

He immediately realised the utility of such legislation and promised to take it further. I was pleased to see, in fact, the leitmotif of this proposal incorporated in the budget speech of last year.

It is thus with a distinct sense of satisfaction that I note Legal Notice 266 of 2006 providing for two main types of substantial fiscal relief for those who make donations to the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, Heritage Malta, Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti and non-governmental cultural heritage organisations.

In the first case, any donation to anyone of these entities of not less than Lm1,000 in cash or in the form of any other asset may be claimed as a deduction against income for the year of assessment in which it is made.

Alternatively, such a claim may also be made in case of any donation of not less than Lm5,000 in cash to any of said entities for the purpose of carrying out restoration works, approved and undertaken by, or on behalf of, any of these entities.

Naturally, certain requirements have to be fulfilled. For instance, the first type of donation must be made for the purpose of research, conservation or restoration, education or exhibition of the cultural heritage and a relevant certificate in respect of such donation be issued by any of said entities. This certificate requirement has to be fulfilled also in the second type of donation.

I have always maintained that I feel proud to form part of a government that listens and cares. The promulgation of this subsidiary, albeit very important and innovative, legislation makes me even more convinced of this reality since the government took up the suggestion I made two years ago.

May this legal notice herald the start of a new policy of artistic acquisitions.

Our cultural heritage is rich. It must be allowed to grow richer.

Dr Azzopardi is a Nationalist Member of Parliament.

jason.azzopardi@gov.mt