Agriculture Minister and former Heritage Malta chairman Anton Refalo, rumoured to be facing criminal police charges and resignation for the theft of a cultural artefact, hung up when contacted by The Shift on Friday in an attempt to confirm the allegations.
Refalo did not even allow enough time for The Shift to ask a single question and hung up at the mere mention of the newsroom’s name. He did not answer any follow-up calls or text messages either.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, former MP Jason Azzopardi claimed that Refalo is facing criminal court charges and, later, that he is due to resign over the matter. Azzopardi called for greater transparency from the government and for official sources to disclose the state of affairs.
Refalo is allegedly criminally charged with having broken the cultural heritage law following The Shift’s February 2022 report that a protected early 19th-century Victorian era stone marker was adorning the courtyard of one of his properties in Qala, Gozo.
Ironically, Refalo served as chairman of Heritage Malta – the national agency for cultural conservation – between 2018 and 2020.
The VR stone marker near the property’s poolside was discovered by chance after it appeared in pictures on social media of the minister’s adult children celebrating a birthday. The photos were posted by the minister’s son Andre Refalo.
The Cultural Heritage Act states that “any person who receives or retains any cultural property knowing that it has been illegally removed in Malta or illegally exported from any other country” would be committing a crime and that the police and Superintendence of Cultural Heritage are obliged to respectively file reports and take the necessary criminal action against the offender.
VR stones used to be a common sight around Gozo up to a few decades ago. They were used during the British period to indicate that a particular parcel of land belonged to the government (Victoria Regina), according to Wirt Għawdex.
Most, however, have been destroyed, fallen victim to development projects, or have simply disappeared and assumed to have been stolen.
Tajjeb! Issa min ser jinvestiga lil Silvio Schembri fuq art pubblika li qed jaghti lil privat??
No one considering his Queen status.
What better way for the Chairman of Heritage Malta to protect it than to take it home and lovingly keep it in his property. He should have done the same with Ġgantija temples.
Minister Anton Refalo will tell us that he doesn’t know how it got there. And it wasn’t him that brought it there and the whole thing stops there.
It is his ground, his garden. He is reliable. He knows everything about these artifacts.
He has to face the music.
However, the terrible stupid or corrupt AG will make just one more mistake and everything will vanished.
Seems like Business as usual.
But the PL with the weak ROBBER Abela stands with the back to the wall.
Let‘s wait and see.
Maybe Anton Refalo has to pay a small fine?
Aliens framed him.
One year and a half later something is moving a bit this country is a hopeless case.
We need a bigger prison
There are so so so many … sounds to me like:
Malta will be roofed.
With leaner rations – to ensure that those who had been pigging it out will return to normal human dimensions!
No reply means GUILTY OF THE CHARGE.
He may however have been busy restoring some other aretefacts which may incriminate him further.
I ask: have the police ever searched his house or any other property he may have, to ensure that he has not created a chain of museums as a hobby.
Ghar tal-Hallelin gabuh il-pajjiż. U TheShift qed jirrangahom ghall-frisk.
Mhux kulhadd thanzer, nithanzer jien wkoll!
These old-school ‘Labour’ geezers make me chuckle