A plastiline model of a full-length portrait of a member of the Squadrone Corazzieri or Squadrone Carabinieri Guardie del Re.

An exceptional private collection of photographs of works by sculptor Antonio Sciortino will become public today.

The collection was owned by sculptor Samuel Bugeja, a close friend of Sciortino and his brother Francesco Saverio. Bugeja’s son, Gerald, is publishing these photos in The Lost Album, Antonio Sciortino.

Described by Giovanni Bonello as “a major breakthrough in our understanding of the artist and of his art”, the book “lifts the veil of oblivion off a number of Sciortino’s works, hitherto unknown and unrecorded. The reader discovers important works by the sculptor which had been forgotten – his documented oeuvre is now richer than ever before.”

Fortunately, Sciortino had the habit of taking photographs of his works. The photos were used to show the full-sized plaster original to the client before it was cast in bronze. He also retouched these photos to produce the effect of shade and enhance their contrast, taking great care to ensure the photos brought out the best of his works.

All the images in the book are accompanied by an exhaustive analysis by Gerald Bugeja, placing them within their artistic andhistorical context, finding new insights into the known works while introducing into Sciortino’s oeuvre some wholly new sculptures.

A plastiline portrait bust of Princess Pignatelli executed in 1926. Right: A model in plaster showing the centre section of the monument of Simon Bolivar.

It is an ongoing diary of intuitions, working hypothesis, creation in progress

Besides unearthing unknown or lost works by Sciortino, the book sheds light on their creative process.

“It is an ongoing diary of intuitions, working hypothesis, creation in progress. Our knowledge and critical appreciation of Sciortino would have been far flatter without it,” commented Bonello.

A full-size plastiline model for the Monument of Christ the King, carbon print, commissioned in 1913 and unveiled in 1917.

Gerald Bugeja’s analysis is accompanied by three other essays on the sculptor: an article by Bonello on an unknown episode in Sciortino’s life when his artistic abilities and integrity were savaged by a failed former student of his, one by Theresa Vella on Sciortino the collector and another by Sandro Debono focusing on the Sciortino collection at the National Museum of Fine Arts.

The book seeks to “fulfil an obligation towards my father, who some years before he died, passed these photographs on to me, advising me to put them to good use. With this publication I intend on reciprocating the trust my father had in me,” Gerald Bugeja saud.

• The Lost Album, Antonio Sciortino, published by Kite, will be launched tonight at the Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, at 7pm.

A front view of the plaster scale model of the Temple of the British Empire to the Unknown Soldier.