The white Carrara marble sculpture portraying the Madonna holding the Christ Child that was situated behind the main altar of the Observant Franciscan church of Ta’ Ġieżu in Rabat has been conserved and restored at the Prevarti Ltd laboratory.
The life-size Madonna and Child sculpture will be returned to the church this week, to be placed on the second altar on the north aisle where it was intended to be placed after the 1757 reconstruction of the Rabat church.
After being removed from the church on September 15, and as part of the research and prior to the cleaning tests and conservation, the sculpture has been subjected to intense photographic documentation, tests under UV and Gamma rays, as well as 3D scans.