We decided to pop into MUZA, right around the corner from our hotel in Valletta, Malta. It is basically the only art museum of its kind in the area, and I usually find that these smaller museums always hold some nice surprises; and surprise us, it did!

MUZA is housed in the Auberge d’Italie, the former home of the Italian Knights of the Order of St. John, so the building itself is very cool. There is not much of a flow to the museum, so you have to make an effort to be sure you have gone into every room and down all of the corridors, because each section really does have some cool stuff. MUZA costs 10 euro for adults, and I think it was worth it for the hour that we spent in this neat place.

The ground floor houses a lot of primarily Maltese artists. Some of the coolest paintings, in my opinion, were the more modern takes on paintings of Mary and Jesus. You always think of these subjects as primarily old-timey but the modern interpretations were fresh and interesting. (Malta is primarily Catholic and the influence is everywhere).

The first floor has a bit more diverse collection of European and Mediterranean artists, including a ton of paintings by Preti, which we enjoyed and spent quite some time with. The most exciting thing, though, was that we were able to view “John the Baptist” (1608) which is a “disputed” Caravaggio painting. It is on our list on Wikipedia, but Wikipedia said that it is in a private collection, unavailable for public viewing, but there it was, right in front of us, at MUZA. (I have since updated the Wiki article!) The caption under the painting states that several experts have determined that it is, indeed, a Caravaggio (including Roberto Longhi in 1951 who is probably the most renowned Caravaggio expert) but some have not yet viewed the painting in person and are holding off on their determination as to its true status until they have the opportunity to examine it. The painting is very damaged, which doesn’t help, but the face of John the Baptist and the way his body was painted seemed very Carravagio-esque to me. We’ll add it to the list here!

I had no idea what to expect here at MUZA, but it was a great place to cool off and view some very interesting pieces for about an hour. The facilities are also very clean and they have a nice, small-ish gift shop. There is also a cafe there in the lovely courtyard, but it was closed when we were there. I would recommend stopping here while wandering around Valletta!