The Albert Ganado Melitensia Collection

“Re: The Albert Ganado Melitensia Collection

Prime Minister,

We write this to attract your attention to an urgent matter that is of state importance. Malta is risking losing an enormous intellectual heritage to private interest.

Dr Albert Ganado has the one of the most impressive private Melitensia collections in Malta. It may be claimed that this collection has been built over a timespan of at least 150 years. The collection was started by his grandfather, his father continued adding considerably to it, and Dr Ganado himself has increased it enormously over the years.

Dr Ganado has been immensely generous in allowing scholars and students to consult his collection – his house is regularly frequented by researchers looking for material which cannot be found in any of the national collections (National Library, National Archives, University of Malta Melitensia collection etc.). The whole collection is of vital importance to Malta because of the treasures it holds.

Unless the state intervenes immediately, the family is forced to break up the collection to sell it to private individuals. This means that the collection will be split up and dispersed among a few private hands, instead of being made available to the whole of the nation.

As academics who have benefited from Dr Ganado’s generosity, and who have been able to appreciate the extent and immense worth of the collection, we urge you, as Prime Minister, to immediately ensure that this collection goes to the public domain. This can only be done if the state purchases the collection as a whole.

It is of vital importance that you intervene now, without the slightest hesitation or delay.

In his recent visit to our islands, Pope Francis warned us that nobody has the right to destroy the ‘collective memory’ of our country and people. If the state allows the Ganado collection, which is truly a repository of our collective

memory, to be dispersed and disbanded, not only would we be committing a sacrilegious act, but we would be cheating our country, and our present and future generations of a heritage from which every citizen should rightly be able to draw benefit.”