December 3, 2024 | 3:19pm
MANILA, Philippines — Jose Rizal’s last opus “Josephine Sleeping” broke the world record for the most expensive work of art by the national hero in Leon Gallery’s “The Kingly Treasures” Auction 2024, which coincided with the nationwide commemoration of the 161st birth anniversary of the “Father of the Philippine Revolution” Andres Bonifacio last November 30.
The intimately carved sculpture of Rizal’s last love made during the last years of his four-year exile in Dapitan achieved P31.2 million, surpassing the record previously set by his bas-relief “The Filipino,” which was also sold at Leon Gallery in June 2018 for P17.5 million.
The highlight of the weekend auction was Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco’s 1964 masterpiece “Tinikling No. 2,” reaping an astounding P55.3 million.
The sale of the work, which came from the collection of Estefania Aldaba-Lim, the Philippines’ first woman cabinet secretary and the first Filipina to obtain a PhD in Clinical Psychology, was a once-in-a-decade occasion in the art market as very few masterpieces by Botong were left in private collections after his untimely death in 1969.
It also should be noted that the majority of Botong’s works were murals commissioned by the government and other noted institutions.
Other world records were broken for works by the “Father of Philippine Modern Sculpture” Napoleon Abueva and contemporary artist Nicole Coson. Abueva’s “Chastity Belt,” his entry to the 1969 Sao Paulo Biennale, attained P3.8 million, while Coson’s untitled work hit P3.4 million.
As a fitting culmination to the birth centennial celebration of Fernando Zóbel, two coveted abstract works by the modernist maestro and pioneering Filipino abstractionist were sold at stunning results. The rare 1959 work, “Azul sobre pardo” (Saeta 258 / Blue on Brown), one of only nine blue Saetas ever made by Zóbel, secured more than P36 million, while “Orilla 69, en Amarillo y Griz,” from Zóbel’s last series of works (“Las Orillas”), clocked in at P22.8 million.
Works by the maestro Fernando Amorsolo also achieved stellar results, keeping the momentum set by the record-breaking sale of his “Under the Mango Tree” last September. The 1945 painting “Market Scene,” painted by Amorsolo in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, fetched P20.4 million, a very impressive result considering that the work only measures 15 ½ by 20 ½ inches. Other Amorsolos also pulled off striking sums, including 1948’s “Lavanderas” (P12.01 million) and 1955’s “Under the Mango Tree” (P13.2 million).
The Amorsolo-influenced Anita Magsaysay-Ho painting, the 1934 work “Lavanderas by the Stream,” the earliest known painting by the revered modernist to come to auction and shows her conservative beginnings, brought in P8.4 million, also an impressive sum for its small size.
Vicente Manansala’s Neo-Realist “Pangguinge,” depicting the alpha Neo-Realists of the 1950s—Manansala, HR Ocampo, Cesar Legaspi, Victor Oteyza, and Arturo Luz, yielded P8.4 million, a staggering 10 times of its starting price of only P800,000.
Alfonso Ossorio’s 1958 untitled work, bearing the penetrating influence of his dear friend Jackson Pollock, hit P26.4 million. It is the last of his rare, large-scale mixed-media panels in private hands, as Ossorio only painted five of these in the late 1950s and gifted them to family and close friends.
The collection of Professor Ambeth R. Ocampo also gained outstanding results. Guillermo Tolentino’s “Bust of Andres Bonifacio,” a plaster of Paris bust cast from the original Bonifacio figure of the artist’s iconic “Monumento,” was sold for P1.9 million. On the other hand, Felix Resureccion Hidalgo’s head study for the now-lost masterpiece “Per Pacem et Libertatem” was sold for P5.05 million.
Also by Hidalgo was the “Portrait of Raimunda Chuidian y de Roxas,” older sister to Telesforo Chuidian who was once the Philippines’ richest man and a notable financier of the Philippine Revolution. The 1890 portrait was auctioned at P19.2 million.
The lots sold to benefit the International School of Manila Filipino Scholars Program saw remarkable figures, led by Jigger Cruz’s “Sudden Flesh in a Fountain of Blues,” which secured P2.6 million. The work was painted in 2013, Cruz’s golden year that set the trajectory of his meteoric rise to fame in the art market. Leo Valledor’s “Lull” and Nena Saguil’s “Still Life with Flowers” were also highlights of the auction’s special section for the ISM, selling for P3.6 million and P2.04 million, respectively.
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