As part of the activities celebrating the 400th anniversary since Caravaggio came to Malta, Heritage Malta is putting up Caravaggio: L’Immagine del Divino, an exhibition of 12 original paintings known well around the world.

The exhibition will be held at the ‘Grand Salon’ of the National Museum of Archaeology in Republic street, Valletta and will also celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1967 cultural agreement between Malta and Italy which has been renewed between 2007-2009. These original paintings will be brought to Malta for the occasion from Italy and the United States. Apart from the original works there will be other works attributed to Caravaggio by researchers.

The Minister of Tourism and Culture, Dr Francis Zammit Dimech, announced the exhibition as part of the Caravaggio400 activities, at a news conference held at Le Meridien hotel in Floriana.

Dr Zammit Dimech said we should consider ourselves lucky that this iconic artist found refuge here, where he completed various works and left us his best painting, The Beheading of St John the Baptist.