Minister Anton Refalo hangs up when faced with resignation questions

Agriculture Minister and former Heritage Malta chairman Anton Refalo, rumoured to be facing criminal police charges and resignation for the theft of a cultural artefact, hung up when contacted by The Shift on Friday in an attempt to confirm the allegations.

Refalo did not even allow enough time for The Shift to ask a single question and hung up at the mere mention of the newsroom’s name. He did not answer any follow-up calls or text messages either.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, former MP Jason Azzopardi claimed that Refalo is facing criminal court charges and, later, that he is due to resign over the matter. Azzopardi called for greater transparency from the government and for official sources to disclose the state of affairs.

Refalo is allegedly criminally charged with having broken the cultural heritage law following The Shift’s February 2022 report that a protected early 19th-century Victorian era stone marker was adorning the courtyard of one of his properties in Qala, Gozo.

Ironically, Refalo served as chairman of Heritage Malta – the national agency for cultural conservation – between 2018 and 2020.

The VR stone marker near the property’s poolside was discovered by chance after it appeared in pictures on social media of the minister’s adult children celebrating a birthday. The photos were posted by the minister’s son Andre Refalo.

The Cultural Heritage Act states that “any person who receives or retains any cultural property knowing that it has been illegally removed in Malta or illegally exported from any other country” would be committing a crime and that the police and Superintendence of Cultural Heritage are obliged to respectively file reports and take the necessary criminal action against the offender.

VR stones used to be a common sight around Gozo up to a few decades ago. They were used during the British period to indicate that a particular parcel of land belonged to the government (Victoria Regina), according to Wirt Għawdex.

Most, however, have been destroyed, fallen victim to development projects, or have simply disappeared and assumed to have been stolen.