Thanks to Sandro Vella, who contacted this paper yesterday, it is possible to watch three Maltese hooligans vandalising what looks like a bronze statue in some deserted corner of Malta, first battering it with a wooden pole and then, in Taliban or post-Saddam style, hacking off its head and inserting the pole in its stead.

Unfortunately, it has not proved possible to show a scene from the YouTube video but the link to Sandro Vella’s website is: www.sandrovella.org and the video is on its front page.

Nor is it possible to identify whom the statue is supposed to represent; it looks like Christopher Columbus or even Dun Mikiel Xerri. Towards the end of the clip it is possible to see a tall communications tower that may give a clue to its whereabouts.

Some comments have suggested the statue is from a Marco Polo film set at Ricasoli. Confirmation was impossible to obtain.

The police are invited to identify the three hooligans, and the organisations in charge of the national heritage should do much better to safeguard our neglected heritage.