Conservators’ 15-year wait to be recognised legally was likely to come to a happy end this year, said their association’s president, James Licari.

Detail of a flower being carefully cleaned from aged protective varnish. Photo: Valentina Lupo

The Malta Association of Professional Conservator-Restorers (MAPCo-Re) was informed that the long-promised warrant system for the conservation profession would kick in by the end of this year, he said.

The conservation professionals’ warrant is listed in the 2002 Cultural Heritage Act but has never been introduced. Amendments to certain aspects of the law, including granting the warrant, have been discussed in recent years.

According to Mr Licari, a warrant would ensure that the profession was acknowledged legally and that Malta’s collective cultural heritage was preserved for its various values – whether historic, religious, aesthetic or scientific – through professional, scientific methods as well as appropriate materials.

Maritime historian Joan Abela, whose voluntary work has helped save and conserve innumerable historic documents, has warned in the past that heritage needs to be protected from amateurish conservation work.

More recently, Mario Buhagiar, from the University of Malta’s Department of Art and Art History, spoke of irreparable damage at Għar San Anard.

In a letter to the Times of Malta, Dr Buhagiar said the apse had, in the last couple of years, been scraped clean to prepare for a new wall-painting of St Leonard and the Virgin in sham Byzantine style, in the process destroying precious historical and archaeological evidence.

Mr Licari said such elements could have been studied scientifically and preserved for future appreciation, while respecting their historical and technical value. He noted that conservators were distinct from artists.

While artists develop artistic skills and style, conservators are equipped with skills to preserve the holistic value of artefacts and sites. Conservators receive scientific training on styles, techniques and materials used, the cause and effect of deterioration and means to prolong the life of the cultural property,  also ensuring any intervention is reversible.

Currently, the conservator-restorer may work on cultural heritage, but so can anyone else who may wish to appropriate the title without the necessary education

MAPCo-Re is an associate member of the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers’ Organisations (ECCO). President Susan Corr was recently in Malta for an annual general meeting, held here as part of the European Year for Cultural Heritage.

Detail of a polychrome statue being cleaned from past artistic restoration to reveal original colours Photo: Maria Grazia Zenzani and Valentina Lupo

Asked why granting warrants was important, considering that conservators were still getting the job done without one, she noted that their work was carried out in the public interest.

“Poor interventions devalue cultural heritage. Having a warrant to practise recognises that the conservator-restorer has the necessary qualifications based on the appropriate education and training that permits them to work on cultural heritage.

“Currently, the conservator-restorer may work on the cultural heritage, but so can anyone else who may wish to appropriate the title without the necessary education,” she remarked.

Dr Corr noted that regulation of the profession was uneven across Europe.

It could also either fall under the jurisdiction of the Culture Ministry, such as in France, where the Museum Law was in force, or the Education Ministry, which provided for the qualification of the conservator-restorer.

Europe had inherited many diverse entry routes into the profession. Traditionally, public heritage would have been looked after by the State, which would have had its own academies or institutions, Dr Corr said.

In line with the principle of subsidiarity, she continued, cultural heritage was a matter of national sovereignty, therefore it was very difficult to have a European law governing the practice of conservation education.

Instead, ECCO focused on the necessary competences that conservator-restorers required to access the profession following the recommended five years of education resulting in a master’s degree or the equivalent, which was now almost standard across the European Union.