Old funeral carriages 'kept in state of neglect'

A man yesterday filed a judicial letter complaining that, before he emigrated to Australia, he gave the authorities three horse-drawn funeral carriages, over 60 years old, for cultural purposes but these were kept in a state of neglect.

The judicial letter was filed by Mary Mifsud, on behalf of her brother-in-law Gejtano Mifsud who resides in Australia, against the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, the Culture Ministry and the Attorney General.

In the judicial letter, Mr Mifsud gave the authorities four days to grant him permission to transport three antique pieces of funeral equipment, related to his line of work, to Australia. This equipment, he said, formed part of a set of seven pieces, four of which had already been taken to Australia.

The seven-piece set consisted of two gold hearses, two carriages, a gold hearse and two baby carriages.

Mr Mifsud also called on the authorities to allow him not to pay duty on the items in line with a verbal agreement he had reached with representatives of the Museum Department in the early 1980s.

Mr Mifsud also referred to the three horse-drawn carriages, over 60 years old, insisting he had given them to the department, in the above mentioned verbal agreement, to use for cultural purposes. However, the carriages where not on public display and were currently in a state of neglect.

Lawyer Owen Bonnici signed the letter.