The new fine arts museum, Muża, a flagship Valletta 2018 project, is facing delays amid a rush to open before October, when it is expected to host a major conference, the Times of Malta has been informed.

The €10 million museum, billed as a first-of-its-kind “national community art museum”, will be housed at the Auberge d’Italie in Valletta and will display the fine art collection from the former national gallery in South Street, as well as new acquisitions.

Last January, Valletta 2018 chairman Jason Micallef dismissed fears that the project would be delayed, insisting on Times Talk it would be open as scheduled by “May or, at the latest, the beginning of June”.

However, this deadline was missed and construction works at the Auberge d’Italie are still ongoing, with no announcement as to when the museum will open.

There is no firm date for the opening, but it is scheduled to host major conferences this year

The Valletta 2018 Foundation referred questions on the subject to Muża curator Sandro Debono, who said a decision on the opening would be taken by the Culture Ministry. The latter did not respond to questions.

Sources told the Times of Malta that the delays were due to a number of discoveries made during construction – including that of the building’s original main staircase – which had forced redesigns or fresh clearance from Unesco in view of the sensitivity of the historic building.

There is still no firm date for the museum to open, but it is scheduled to host two major conferences later this year: the Valletta 2018 international conference on October 24 and the annual conference of the Network of European Museum Organisations on November 15.

The sources said there was confidence that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the museum would be open in time to host the two conferences as planned.

This is not the first of the European Capital of Culture’s infrastructural projects to be hit by delays.

Works on the City Gate ditch embellishment project, which were scheduled to be completed this month, have also fallen behind, with no specific deadline set for the opening of the public garden there.

Instead, the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation, carrying out the project, told this newspaper last week that access would be restored “in a few weeks” and trees planted towards the end of the year.

Other flagship projects have yet to see the light of day. The Valletta Design Cluster, an international design hub at the dilapidated Civil Abattoir (Il-Biċċerija), is scheduled to open by the end of the year, while the Malta International Contemporary Arts Space (MICAS) at the San Salvatore Bastion, Floriana, will not be completed before 2021, having been granted planning permission only last May.