Cap. 445 Art. 70Wilful damage or destruction of cultural property.

(1) Any person who:

(a) wilfully, or through negligence, unskillfulness or non-

observance of regulations causes damage to or destroys any cultural property whether or not such cultural property has been registered in any inventory in accordance with this Act, and even if such cultural heritage property is owned by the person who has caused the damage or destruction, or is lawfully administered by such a person;

(b) carries out any activity or does any act in contravention of the provisions of this Act or of any regulation made thereunder or of the conditions of any licence or permit issued under this Act or fails to do anything which he is required to do under this Act, regulation or licence; or

(c) acts as a conservator-restorer when he is not in possession of a warrant under Part VI of this Act; or

(d) fails to abide with any suspension notice issued in accordance with article 62 or with a conservation or protection order made in accordance with article 63; or

(e) receives or retains any cultural property knowing that it has been illegally removed in Malta or illegally exported from any other country; or

(f) hinders, obstructs, molests or interferes with, or attempts to hinder, obstruct, molest or interfere with, any officer or employee of the Superintendence, or of the Agency, or of the Council or any police officer, in the execution of duties provided for under this Act, or fails to comply with any lawful order by any such officer or employee or police officer as aforesaid, or knowingly furnishes such officers or employees with false information or neglects or refuses to give any information required by or under this Act; or

(g) makes a declaration for any of the purposes of this Act which is false, misleading or incorrect in any material respect; or

(h) any person who knowingly is in possession of any form of cultural property which was acquired illegally and retained by such person, shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine (multa) of not less than two thousand euro (€2,000) and not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand euro (€250,000), or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six (6) years, or to both such fine and imprisonment: Provided that, subject to the above maximum, the minimum fine (multa) to which an offender shall become liable under this article shall not be less than the value of any work required to remedy the effects of the offence.

(2) The liability of an offender under sub-article (1) shall be without prejudice to the liability of the offender to pay to the Superintendent any cost incurred in the reintegration, or restoration of the cultural property caused by the offence, or to pay into the Fund the value of the cultural property destroyed or damaged when the same cannot be reintegrated or restored. Such payment may be recovered by civil suit by the Superintendent against the offender or his heirs.

(3) The Court, besides awarding the punishment referred to in this article, shall order the convicted offenders to remove the causes of the offence and to undo anything which was done without any permit required under this Act or to comply with the conditions imposed in such a permit, as the case may be, within a time sufficient for the purpose and in any case not exceeding three months from the date of the judgement and, if the offender fails to comply with any such order within the time so fixed, he shall be liable to a further fine (multa) of not less than two hundred euro (€200.00) and not more than five hundred euro (€500), as the court may fix, for every day the default continues after the expiration of the said time.