Malta Unveils its Flashy MICAS Museum and New Luxury Lodgings

There’s a spectacular, 42-foot-tall tree flowering inside the new MICAS museum in Malta. Each of its more than 100,000 leaves was handcrafted from scraps of cloth or paper before the work was painstakingly installed here, rigged up with lights that pulse and glow as if on fire. Tree of Life by Joana Vasconcelos is one of many pieces by the prankish Portuguese artist that feature in the museum’s debut show—signature, supersized knitted blobs dangle from the ceiling nearby and, on show outside, there’s Solitaire, her 24-foot-high engagement ring made from shiny gold rims and whiskey glasses. On a warm Friday evening in October, the place is buzzing, fireworks are flaring in the night sky as the Maltese president welcomes the first guests to tour the show.

Vasconcelos speaks to the crowd about her decision to contribute here. She tells everyone that artists tend to ask three questions about such opportunities: “Is it good? Are they nice? Do they have money?”

She pauses, waiting for the knowing laughter.

“And you guys have it all,” she says. “This is going to be a success in the art world because people are going to talk about it.”

Certainly the 15,000 square feet of exhibition space is spectacular, made from Malta’s signature lion-colored limestone and glass. The entire structure is artfully engineered as if almost dangling from the city’s centuries-old fortifications. “This is a rock ’n’ roll place—no white walls, no ceiling; and what I’ve seen this last week is magical,” Vasconcelos says.

The night marks the culmination of a $34.2-million, yearslong project to add a cutting-edge art space to this historic country. There’s already plenty of cultural cachet, whether the 6,000-year-old hypogeum burial chamber under a side street in the central town of Paola or The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, arguably Caravaggio’s masterpiece, which sits in the maximalist St. John’s Co-Cathedral (one wag dubbed the default local aesthetic ‘baroque ’n’ roll’). MICAS represents an attempt to infuse the island nation with some contemporary energy; when Vasconcelos’ show concludes in March, curator Edith Devaney will present a group show from Maltese artists working today to help bolster that association.

The opening of MICAS is part of a wider shift under way. New, higher-end hotels are soon to debut, including the Cité Privée Maison Malte (citeprivee.ch) in the Three Cities historic towns, just over the harbor from Valletta. “Everything here is like living in Malta in 1652—the cobblestones haven’t been replaced,” says hotel owner John Cooney. Romègas Hotel (romegashotel.com) in Valletta is a 23-room, boutique property in a 500-year-old palazzo and set to open next summer, while Rug Company founders Christopher and Suzanne Sharp are slowly transforming a mansion in Attard into Casa Bonavita, another boutique property earmarked for early 2026. Their daughter, Sophie, runs the revived Villa Bologna (villabologna.com) pottery studio and its adjacent restaurant nearby.

Suzanne is Maltese, but Christopher grew up in Uganda, only stumbling on the island after meeting his wife four decades ago. “It’s a huge advantage that most people speak perfect English, because you can immerse yourself in the heart of the culture extremely easily,” he says. “And the history here is extraordinary; each invader has left its mark, so the culture is incredibly rich for such a small country.” Still, the core of appeal of his adoptive home perhaps lies in simpler things. “You’re surrounded by the sea, and you can swim anywhere. Just park your car, walk down to the rocks, set up your towel, and swim. The sea is very clean and very deep, so it’s extremely blue. It’s glorious.”



Photo Credits: Courtesy MICAS