Heritage Malta is putting up an exhibition consisting of 11 works in bronze and marble by the Maltese sculptor Antonio Sciortino in Valencia, Spain. The exhibition is the first one-man exhibition of Sciortino's works overseas.

Some of Sciortino's most noteworthy works from the national collection at the National Museum of Fine Arts are being exhibited. These include Rythmi Vitae, Surprise and Nina de Vetlina among others, and are being accompanied by a fibre-glass replica of Sciortino's original Les Gavroches. The exhibition is co-curated by Heritage Malta's Senior Curator for Arts and Palaces Mr Sandro Debono, Mr Dennis Vella as curator of modern and contemporary art within the Arts and Palaces Department and an authority on Antonio Sciortino, and Don Vicente Alcaraz from the Ajuntamient de Valencia.

Antonio Sciortino was born and bred in Zebbug, Malta. His rural upbringing did not stop his talents being recognized and encouraged from an early age. Both his aunt, Vittorina Sciortino who was a headmistress and his cousin, Lazzaro Pisani, already an established painter at that time were instrumental in encouraging Sciortino to enrol in the School of Art in Valletta where he excelled as an art student. An introduction with Donna Louisa Strickland helped Sciortino obtain a grant from the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce to study in the Istituto di Belle Arti in Rome. While studying there he also attended the British Academy of Art and the Museo Atristico in the evenings. He studied engineering and monumental architecture for two years and after graduating in 1902 he established his studio in Via Margutta Rome.

In 1927, he was commissioned to create Monument to the Fallen in the Great Siege of 1565, which was placed in the square adjoining St. John's cathedral.

During the mid- to-late 1930's Sciortino's style showed his debt to the Art Deco influences and his work centered on the dynamic interpretation of movement and speed. He did this by depicting figure, objects or animals surrounded by parallel bands of seemingly displaced air a device that he claimed was his original idea. Works such as Speed, Archer on Horsback, or Arab Horses show this idea particularly well.

In 1936 the British Academy was caught up in a diplomatic wrangle caused by the Abyssinian crisis and was forced to close down and Sciortino had to abandon Rome, leaving behind many of his works as well as his personal art collection locked up in his Rome studio. On his return to Malta he was given a post as Curator of Fine Art at the Valletta Museum at the Auberge d'Italie.

The exhibition is being held at the Casa Museo Benlliure; a historic house built at the turn of the century and former property of the Benlliure family of artists including Jose Benlliure, a painter and former Director of the Spanish Academy in Rome and Mariano, Spain's most important modern 19th and 20th century sculptor. The exhibition will run until May and is being held by the Ajuntamient de Valencia, the local government of the City of Valencia, and Malta's national agency for cultural heritage, Heritage Malta. The event will also be under the distinguished patronage of the UNESCO Valencia committee. Its director, Don Vicente Burgos has been instrumental in making this historic event happen which was also possible thanks to a collaboration agreement signed way back in 2006 between Heritage Malta and Fundacion Jaume II el Just of which Dr Burgos was then the director. This collaboration has also led to a further prestigious exhibition, this time featuring prehistoric Malta, which Heritage Malta will be putting up in Alicante later on this year at the express invitation of the MARQ museum, the winner of the 2004 European Museum of the Year Award.