Keynote Speaker

Keynote Speaker

David Frank Bugeja

Senior Conservator, Heritage Maltadavid-frank.bugeja@gov.mtheritagemalta.mt(opens in a new tab)

Giving a Voice to Silent Patients: Understanding, Preserving and Interpreting Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Cultural artefacts are silent patients: each has a unique material structure, history, condition and context. Before deciding how to preserve or interpret them, we must first learn how to listen to what they can tell us about their past and present needs. Drawing on two artworks from Heritage Malta's National Collection, this keynote explores how collaboration between conservators, scientists, art historians, curators and digitisation professionals can reveal hidden histories, support informed conservation and reconnect objects with lost contexts. It argues that holistic, evidence-based digitisation should do more than reproduce appearance: it should give cultural heritage a trustworthy and accessible voice while clearly communicating both what we know and what remains uncertain.

Biography

David Frank Bugeja is a Senior Conservator at Heritage Malta, where he is responsible for the Preventive Conservation Unit and the Paintings, Paper, Textiles and Wood Conservation Departments. He specialises in the conservation and restoration of paintings and polychrome sculpture. His work involves the investigation, conservation and preservation of cultural heritage, working alongside conservators, scientists, art historians, curators and digitisation professionals.