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The Protection of Cultural Heritage in Maltese Law

This paper illustrates how the antiquities of the Maltese islands came to be protected from 1910 onwards, prompted by the archaeological discoveries and wanton destruction of monuments in the previous decades. The provisions of the Antiquities Protection Act of 1925 are examined in detail. Some of them, as the setting up of an Antiquities Committee and the publication of lists of protected objects, have become a dead letter.  In the last decade, certain provisions of the Planning Act and an Act to protect the Environment impinged on the protection of antiquities. A Heritage Advisory Committee set up under the Planning Act has been functioning regularly since 1993.  The writer points out that all these measures contain overlapping functions and duplication of responsibilities which have thrown in disarray the functioning of the various bodies charged with the protection of Malta’s cultural heritage. He ends with an appeal to government to remedy this deplorable situation.