Tate Plus paid €63,000 over Fine Arts Museum move

Plus Tate, a network associated with the prestigious Tate art museums in Britain, was paid €63,000 in 2012 for its advice over the move of the National Museum of Fine Arts from Admirality House in South Street, Valletta to the nearby Auberge d'Italie in Merchant's Street.

This emerged from the answer to a Parliamentary Question on the direct orders awarded by the tourism ministry under the PN administration. In recent weeks a number of Parliamentary Questions on direct orders awarded in 2012 and previous years revealed the fees paid to Maltese and foreign individuals or companies whose services were required by the Nationalist administration.

Despite no deadline being set for the museum's move, the decision was taken over two years ago.

Speaking to MaltaToday just over a year ago, curator Alexander Debono had explained that the decision to move venue - which was officially announced during the 2012 Budget speech - came about for a number of reasons.

"The new seat means a significant increase to its current permanent display area; I would say almost threefold. The quality and type of services it can offer from this new seat, and the much more felt presence at the centre of the city as one of the major exponents of Malta's artistic identity are all positive gains," Debono said, adding that Malta shouldn't be tame in its ambitions regarding its national museum: "With a significant upgrade in both display and services, the museum will be a far more effective tool to reach out to less typical audiences. We should not be anything else than a European national museum.

Significantly, Auberge d'Italie was also the first seat for Malta's National Museum between 1925 and 1954.

"The move will mean a 'return back home' to where the national museum was conceived. Auberge d'Italie has great significance for Malta's cultural heritage sector," Debono said.