Sandiganbayan orders Marcoses’ ‘ill-gotten’ paintings seized

The Sandiganbayan’s Security and Sheriff’s Services Division has been tasked with recovering eight paintings — including one by Michaelangelo and another by Pablo Picasso — currently in the possession of the family of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

Sandiganbayan sheriffs have been "ordered to seize, secure and attach the paintings described… and such other paintings listed in [the] judicial affidavit dated 18 August 2014 of  Presidential Commission on Good Government Commissioner Ma. Ngina Teresa Chan-Gonzaga," the anti-graft court said in its Writ of Attachment.
 
The First Division of the anti-graft court said the paintings should be kept by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas pending the resolution of a civil case involving Marcos’ supposed ill-gotten wealth.
 
The court’s decision resolved a petition filed by the PCGG, which asked the Sandiganbayan to have the paintings secured.

"If and when the paintings are transferred in its custody, the BSP shall not move, remove or transfer the paintings without prior authority from this Court and shall do whatever is necessary for the preservation of the said properties under judicial custody," the order read.

Included in the list of paintings ordered seized are the following:

• Madonna and Child by Michelangelo Bounarroti;
• Femme Couchee VI (Reclining Woman VI) by Pablo Picasso;
• Portrait of the Marqueza de Sta. Cruz by Francisco de Goya;
• Still Life with Idol by Paul Gaugin;
• LaBaignade Au Grand Temps by Pierre Bonnard;
• Vase of Chrysanthemums by Bernard Buffet;
• Jardin de Kew pres de la Serre 1892 by Camille Pisarro;
• L’Aube by Joan Miro

 
Sandiganbayan sheriffs were specifically instructed to search former First Lady and now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos’ known addresses, including her office at Room NB-218 of the House of Representatives; and her condominium suites at the Penthouse of One McKinley Place in Bonifacio Global City and 34-B Pacific Plaza Condominium on Ayala Avenue in Makati City.

Other possible locations of the paintings include the Marcos family’s ancestral house in Batac, Ilocos Norte; and the family’s old house on Don Mariano Marcos Street corner P. Guevarra Street in San Juan. — JDS/KG, GMA News