Heritage Malta is holding a lecture entitled ‘Stories and histories: The genesis of the national collection of paintings and sculptures’ today at MUŻA, the national community art museum in Valletta.

In 2020, MUŻA and Heritage Malta will be celebrating the centenary from the establishment of Auberge d’Italie as the seat of what was then known as the Valletta Museum, and the foundation of the Fine Arts Section, which is now MUŻA, relocated to the venue where it was born. 

In February 1920 the proposal to transform Auberge d’Italie into a museum was first proposed as the most fitting venue where Vincenzo Bonello, founder of the now MUŻA collection, could bring together the nation’s treasures. 

Sandro Debono, senior curator at MUŻA, will present the latest findings and new research about the genesis of the national collection of paintings and sculptures. 

The lecture will discuss and articulate the challenges of the new museum institution during the inter-war period as it engaged with the challenges of a national identity, then caught between Italophile and Anglophile narratives.  

The lecture at MUŻA, Auberge d’Italie, Merchants Street, Valletta, starts at 6.45pm. Attendance is free. For more information, visit www.heritagemalta.org.

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