The Ambassador of Malta to Belgium, Vanessa Frazier and her deputy, Stefan Muscat, recently visited the world renowned Dr Witt Laboratories in Mechelen, Belgium. 

The Royal Manufacturers De Wit was founded in 1889. Yvan Maes De Wit, the present director, represents the fourth generation of tapestry weavers and restorers.  The Royal Manufacturers cleans, conserves and restores tapestries and is today the leading tapestry restorer in the world for museums and one of the leading laboratories for private customers. De Witt have been commissioned by the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation to restore the Cathedral’s magnificent set of Flemish tapestries. During the visit the Mr Yvan Maes De Wit explained the techniques developed by De Wit to clean and restore centuries old tapestries.

The set of Flemish Tapestries at St John’s Co-Cathedral was the gift made to the church by the Aragonese Grand Master Ramon Perellos y Roccaful upon his election in 1697. The tapestries are the largest complete set in the world and consist of twenty-nine pieces ordered from the Brussels atelier of Judocus de Vos.  The tapestries are woven entirely from the finest wool and silk yarns and measure over 6 meters in height. The overwhelming dimensions and the exuberant character of the designs based on cartoons prepared by the renowned artist Peter Paul Rubens render this set one of the most spectacular interpretations of baroque art. The priceless collection is the largest in the world and is unique.

The restoration of the complete set of tapestries will take up to ten years at an estimated cost of one million euro. The Foundation intends to restore all the tapestries, two of which were already restored in 1997. There are currently two tapestries from this set undergoing restoration with one tapestry requiring a year of careful restoration by the team of experts at De Wit.

The Belgian government has also supported this project with the King Baudouin Foundation of Belgium sponsoring the restoration of one of the tapestries and the Belgian Ministry of Defence providing the special transport by air to transfer the tapestries to and from Malta and Belgium.

Ambassador Frazier thanked De Witt for the restoration work it is carrying out as well as the Belgian Ministry of Defence for its continued support of this project.