Preparations for an exhibition showcasing works by Mattia Preti are in the final stages.

The exhibition will be inaugurated by President George Abela at the Grandmaster’s Palace in Valletta this evening.

The clustered exhibition, Matti Preti: Faith and Humanity, is being organised by Heritage Malta in collaboration with Museo Civico di Taverna and brings together 34 paintings and sketches from public collections across Europe, including works from Spain’s national Prado museum and the Louvre.

The collection of masterpieces has never visited Malta before and Heritage Malta Curator Sandro Debono said, “By no stretch of the imagination can I see a Preti exhibition of this calibre and historic significance in Malta again.”

The exhibition forms part of a series of events being organised by Heritage Malta in the run up to Valletta’s V18 tenure as European Capital of Culture. Mr Debono said, “The three-tier exhibition fuses paintings of national and historic significance with the results of scientific work and a new interactive element.”

The arguable star of the exhibition - Preti’s depiction of the beheaded corpse of St John the Baptist - will be on show alongside its original sketch, which Mr Debono said had not been side by side since they left Preti’s workshop some 350 years ago.

The exhibition will run until July 7.