Multi-million-euro contemporary art centre to open, three years late

The government has announced the final date for the long-overdue contemporary art centre in Floriana, better known as MICAS, three years after it had to open its doors to the public.

The Chair of the government entity responsible for the project, Phyllis Muscat, announced the multi-million-euro centre will open to the public next month following a planned lavish ceremony headed by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Sources at MICAS told The Shift that the opening date is expected to be respected this time, as the centre is almost finished.

Conceptualised as part of the legacy connected to Valletta being the European Cultural Capital in 2018, the project had to open in 2021.

Although Phyllis Muscat has been on the government’s payroll for the past five years to manage this project, she never explained the reasons for the massive delays.

Instead, Muscat and her small team spent millions in direct orders, including acquiring works of art for the same centre, mainly from suppliers and artists well connected to Muscat’s team.

The Shift has already revealed how two particular works of art, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands, were commissioned from friends of Francis Sultana, a Gozitan interior designer, and put on the MICAS board by Muscat.

A committee including Muscat and Sultana selected the works of art without any form of transparency or competition, including ‘The Radiant’ by Swiss sculptor Ugo Rondinone and ‘The Palm Goddess of Malta’ by American artist Michelle Oka Doner.

The two commissioned artists are also clients of the David Gill Gallery in London, run by Francis Sultana and owned by his partner.

Sultana is an art dealer and interior designer with multi-millionaire clients. In 2013, he was made Ambassador for Culture by disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat.

On her part, Muscat, whose business achievements involved beauty products, was given various roles in the Labour administration.

Before becoming responsible for the delayed MICAS project, Muscat was tasked with organising the CHOGM summit in 2015. She recruited Adrian Hillman, the managing director of Times of Malta at the time, to her team. Hillman was later arraigned in court over money laundering, graft, and other criminal charges.

So far, the government has refused to state how much the MICAS project has cost.