Authenticity of seized paintings from Marcoses’ ancestral house in doubt – NBI

The authenticity of the 15 paintings seized from the ancestral house of the Marcoses in San Juan City seems questionable, an official of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said Tuesday.

 

In an interview on GMA News TV's State of the Nation with Jessica Soho (SONA) aired Tuesday evening, Atty. Eric Isidro said some of the seized paintings have multiple copies, putting their authenticity in question.

The lawyer is the executive director of the NBI's Reaction, Arrest and Interdiction Division.

 

“Kasi meron kaming mga painting na nakita na isang klase ng painting pero tatlong kopya siya. Hindi namin alam kung alin doon ang genuine. Yung mga expert na ang makakapag-determine niyan,” Isidro said.

 

The SONA report said among the seized paintings with more than one copy was the “Madonna and Child” by Michelangelo Bounarroti.

 

The “Madonna and Child” was among the eight paintings that the Sandiganbayan ordered to be seized from the Marcos family pending the resolution of a civil case involving the ill-gotten wealth of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos.

 

Aside from the “Madonna and Child,” also seized by the joint forces of the NBI, Sandiganbayan’s Security and Sheriff’s Services Division, and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was Pablo Picasso's “Femme Couchee VI (Reclining Woman VI).”

 

Picasso's painting was also among the eight paintings ordered seized by the Sandiganbayan. However, the SONA report said it is uncertain if the painting is genuine as its authentication certificate, which is usually issued to a buyer upon the purchase of an original painting, was missing.

 

Other paintings ordered seized by the Sandiganbayan that were not found during the joint operation of the NBI, Sandiganbayan Sheriff Division and the PCGG are the following:

 

 

The 13 other paintings seized during the operation, meanwhile, were among the more than 100 paintings the PCGG identified as part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

 

“If there are other paintings that come to light later on, then we can still assert a sovereign claim. But of the list that we have registered now in the lost artworks databases, there are about 156 (paintings),” said PCGG commissioner Maita Chan Gonzaga.

Other than the ancestral house in San Juan, authorities also searched three more areas including houses and condominium units believed to be owned by the Marcoses but did not find any artwork, the SONA report said.

 

As ordered by the Sandiganbayan, all the seized paintings were brought to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for safe-keeping.

 

In 2010, after more than two decades of searching, the PCGG recovered a painting by French impressionist Claude Monet in a house believed to be owned by the Marcoses in New York City. The painting reportedly costs $32 million or P1.4 billion.

 

In January of this year, about $15 million or P675 million from the sales of the Monet painting was distributed to 6,500 human right victims of Martial Law, with each one receiving P50,000. — Elizabeth Marcelo/RSJ, GMA News