The National Collection has recently been enriched with the acquisition of the bozzetto for the Dun Mikiel Xerri monument by Anton Agius, erected in Independence Square in Valletta in 1986. It commemorates the death of Dun Mikiel Xerri and his companions, showing the moment when they were shot dead by the French on 17 January 1799 after they spearheaded an unsuccessful Maltese revolt. The bozzetto in patinated plaster, like the finished monument, shows Dun Mikiel Xerri still standing with his fallen companions at his feet. The crude, less defined figures in the bozzetto make it a powerful emotional work that conveys the horrors of the execution.