Back in October of 2023, Heritage Malta loaned a part of Malta's national Mattia Preti collection to the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw, yet they have now officially returned back to the islands once again.

They were originally loaned to Warsaw for an exhibition, entitled ‘Mattia Preti: Discovering The Baroque Secrets of Malta’.

For a number of months, the exhibition offered a fascinating insight into Preti’s strong connection with Malta, his formative years and his many travels before settling in Malta in 1661, his aspiration for knighthood in the Order of St John of Jerusalem, and the most ambitious project of his career – the painting of the vault of St John’s Conventual Church in Valletta.

The number of loaned works can now be admired once again at MUŻA in Valletta by tourists and locals alike.

The eight paintings that have returned back to their original home include ‘The Young St John the Baptist wearing the Habit of the Order of St John’, ‘Daniel interpreting the Dream of King Nebuchadnezzar’, ‘Lot and his Daughters’, ‘Drunkenness of Noah’, ‘St Bartholomew, Doubting Thomas’, ‘Baptism of Christ’ and ‘Apelles painting Campaspe’.

Apart from these eight paintings, Heritage Malta also loaned the Polish Museum ‘Mattia Preti Distributing Alms to the Poor’, a painting by Giuseppe Calì. This painting has also found its way back to Malta.