It was the Minister of Culture, José Herrera, who indicated on Monday that Malta would ask Britain to return the fossil. “Some artifacts important to Malta’s national heritage have ended up abroad and should be returned,” Herrera said.
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Later, the ministry changed its mind. “It is not our intention to continue in this matter,” a spokesman for the minister told the Times of Malta today without further explanation. Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela has said that the country should avoid causing unnecessary controversy.
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Herrer’s statement on Monday provoked negative reactions on social networks. For example, Matthew Caruana Galizia, the son of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizi, who was murdered three years ago, wrote on a Twitter account: “A megalodon tooth costs 40 euros (over 1,000 crowns) on eBay. Corruption costs us billions of euros. I ask our government to set priorities. , watch out what’s important. “
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Attenborough found the fossil in the 1960s during a holiday in Malta, which until 1964 was a British colony. This weekend he donated it to the great-grandson of British Queen Elizabeth II. during a private screening of his latest documentary, A Life On Our Planet.
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The donated tooth belonged to a prehistoric megalodon shark that lived millions of years ago and, according to scientists, measured up to 16 meters. To this day, only teeth or vertebrae have survived.
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