Warrants are to be introduced for conservators and restorers, Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said today.

Speaking at a forum on the state of cultural heritage, Dr de Marco heralded the revision which would lead to the professional recognition of conservator-restorers. “We’re conscious that perhaps there wasn’t a framework to recognise the talent of these people, there need to be warrants," he said.

Even though Malta has had restoration courses for over a decade, so far, graduates from the four-year courses are not granted warrants as there is no system in place for them to be given it.

As the system stands, conservators have to spend two years working under a conservator with a warrant.

The problem with the system, Dr de Marco said, was that only people who had a warrant could issue a warrant. However, there was no-one who could do this, and Malta’s conservation graduates ended up with a degree but no legal authorisation to carry out this work.

The original law had provided for an interim board to be set up and grant the first warrants to experienced practitioners and set the process in motion. This however, did not happen, and currently there is no distinction between qualified, professionally trained conservator-restorers and those just purporting to be so.

The introduction of warrants will be part of an updating of the Cultural Heritage Act.

“The system being developed will take into account the different specialisations and practices of conservator-restorers, therefore, together with the general warrant, one will have a practicing certificate specific to, say, ceramics,” said Jeanine Rizzo a consultant to the parliamentary secretariat for culture.

The provision of warrants, she said, should help those requiring services of a restorer to be able to go to the right persons knowing they have been adequately trained to work with specific materials.

Mgr Prof. Vinċenz Borg that even though there now were good restorers working and being trained in Malta “we have to be careful to whom we give important restoration works, so that we don’t repeat the disasters of the past.”

Labour MP Owen Bonnici welcomed the proposal, saying that ever since he had started in his role as culture spokesman for the party he was made aware of this issue, which he felt was very important to the cultural sector.