We are now past the midyear and can therefore try to draw up an appraisal of what the Capital City of Culture has brought with it.

Not all the items we will be mentioning are to be ascribed to Jason Micallef who was appointed by the government to spearhead the Valletta 18 celebrations.

Let us list:

-         The Auberge d’Italie which is being turned into a Museum of Fine Arts is far from being ready.

-         The St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum is still closed to visitors.

Let us explain.

Six years ago the Museum of Fine Arts was housed, inadequately, in a palace in South Street. Then agreement was reached to swap it for the Auberge d’Italie which at that time (we are speaking of the last years of the PN administration) housed MTA and the Ministry of Tourism.

Then, when Labour got to govern, the MTA staff refused to move to South Street. They were not all wrong. The palazzo has a grand staircase but then many rooms are small and dingy and lack air.

Anyway, after many negotiations, MTA accepted to move out and the work on the restoration and refurbishment of the building could begin. The new museum will be called MUZA and will be a new concept for a museum with enhanced feedback by the visitors.

So far, so good. But the works have encountered some difficulties and, for example, the re-orientation of the building towards its original entrance, behind the La Vallette statue, is still very much a work in progress.

The inauguration of MUZA, originally set to be one of the V18 highlights, has been postponed again and again and now is tentatively set for the last  months of the year.

Meanwhile the hundreds, if not thousands, of works of art by Maltese artists languish in the reserve collection without being seen and enjoyed by the public.

Over at St John’s, the work on the extension of the museum was announced and rendered public months ago. But it also means that the museum, or significant parts of it, has been closed for months.

Thus the visitors who have been attracted to come to Malta by the V18 publicity are missing out on two of the main attractions Malta can offer.

There’s more: the Palace of the Grand Masters too is being restored and significant parts of it are closed to the public.

Of course, visitors can still visit St John’s and maybe parts of the Palace but their visit to Malta is considerably poorer than it will be when these works are finally over and the sites can be enjoyed.