The government is paying a total of €31,966 for the transport and display of the dagger of Grandmaster Jean Parisot de Valette, Justice and Culture Minister Owen Bonnici told Parliament this evening.

Dr Bonnici was replying to a parliamentary question tabled by Opposition MP Antoine Borg.

The exhibition of the dagger in Malta cost a total of €20,000, while the dagger's transportation from the Louvre in Paris to Malta cost €7,000, he said. 

The total cost also includes the 2014 visit of two Heritage Malta officials to the Louvre (€940), the trips of the curator of Heritage Malta and the curator of the Louvre to Paris and back (€2,026), the trip of two curators to take the dagger back to Paris in July 2017 (€2,000).