September 18, 2024 | 2:35pm
MANILA, Philippines — Paintings by revered Filipino artists Fernando Amorsolo and Juan Luna were sold at record prices this month by Leon Gallery.
The gallery sold Amorsolo’s “Under the Mango Tree” for a whopping P57,676,800, beating the previous record for an Amorsolo painting back in 2018 when the gallery sold “Peracamps Mango Gatherers” for P46.7 million.
“Under the Mango Tree” had a starting price of P48 million at the gallery’s Magnificent September Auction 2024 and was almost guaranteed to break the six-year record.
The artwork painted in 1929 is from the collection of pre-war American industrialist Edward Joseph Nell, the individidual who brought Carrier Incorporated to the Philippines.
Another Amorsolo painting, “Ifugaos in Mines View Park,” meanwhile, was sold for P18,042,000.
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Leon Gallery also set a new record for the most expensive portrait by Juan Luna sold by the gallery when “Portrait of Adele della Rocca” went for P31,241,600.
The portrait depicting the niece of the senior aide-de-camp of King Umberto I of Italy was painted in 1884, the same year Luna created “Spoliarium.”
Outside of paintings, a rare manuscript copy of the 1898 Declaration of Independence doubled the previous record for the most expensive Philippine historical document sold at auction as it went for P11,415,200.
Dubbed “The Birth Certificate of the Filipino Nation,” the document was hand-copied by Lt. Col. Jose Bañuelo, a signatory and among President Emilio Aguinaldo’s closest confidantes.
It broke the record set by the 1897 document “Extremely Rare and Historically Important Letter from Andres Bonifacio to Emilio Jacinto” which the Leon Gallery sold in 2018 for P5.6 million.
Also sold for record prices were Alfonso Ossorio’s “1957 Untitled” (P33,644,800), Jason Cortez’s “The Graces” (P2,283,040), and Arce’s “Surrender All Unto Him and Everything Will Bloom According to Thy Will” (P1,922,560).
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