The world of cultural heritage has lost one of its giants. Sebastiano Tusa (right), who died on the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy, was well known in Malta.

He had insisted and founded the Superintendence of the Sea in Sicily and has been Assessore (minister) for heritage in Sicily for the past year. He was a world-renowned expert on underwater heritage.

We were great personal friends and met continuously. During the opening of a major conference I organised in Montalbano Elicona, in Sicily last October he described me as Sicily’s best foreign friend.

He was travelling as a Unesco expert when tragedy struck. Sicily, in particular, has lost the best minister for cultural heritage it could have.

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