Famous Faces, Record Results at the Leon-ACC Auction

Joya's 1959 Masterpiece for P112 million

MANILA, Philippines — Famous faces almost went unnoticed at the recent León Gallery auction that had the crowd at the edge of their seats for most of the afternoon. Socialites and beauties, movie stars and political advisers, members of Manila’s 400 and from the pages of New York’s W had to share the limelight with the luminous glow of some of the country’s most riveting artworks.

Robin Padilla came to bid for the Bonifacio letters.                                                                         

Furniture enthusiasts had their fill with an excellent Baliwag Sheraton from the Ramon N. Villegas collection, which brought in P4.3 million, thanks to its excellent provenance. The piece had been selected as one of the 100 objects to represent Philippine art and culture at the recent Ayala Museum show “Curated by Federico de Vera.” Social historian Augusto “Toto” Gonzalez remarked that he “had not seen such a six-drawer, six-legged piece of equal caliber in the last 20 years.”  Another scene-stealer was the pair of Maximo Viola armchairs said to be the last of the trove from the estate of the man who financed Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere — which sparked the Philippine Revolution and took us down the road to freedom. The two chairs (although sold separately) reaped over P6 million.

Contemporary artists — on the wings of another rambunctious ArtFair Philippines Week — delivered solid results: Annie Cabigting’s coveted “Black (After Ad Reindhardt at the MOMA)” achieved P8.2 million. Danilo Dalena, who was the subject of a powerful retrospective in 2017, set a world’s record at P8.7 million for his sharply caustic view of a men’s lavatory.  Andres Barrioquinto reached new heights with the stunning “When Horses Gallop,” a fairytale on canvas combining allegory and fantasy that established another world record for the artist at P16.4 million.

The crowd, however, could be overheard catching its breath with the arrival of Lot 56, Jose Joya’s powerful “Space Transfiguration,” hailed by the country’s top art critics as a pivotal work in the artist’s career.  The work is not just the most talked and written about Joya but also his most important masterpiece.  The extraordinary oil — said to have been inspired by NASA’s inter-galactic exploration — had been the subject of collectors’ speculations for weeks but no-one was prepared for the, yes, other-worldly auction results. The bidding leapfrogged briskly from P50 million to P75 million and from there, a short skip and jump to an astounding P112 million. At each benchmark, the crowd hooted, whistled and clapped — celebrating not so much the stratospheric figures but cheering for the cause of Philippine art. When the dust had settled, Joya’s 1959 masterpiece was officially the most expensive Filipino painting in the world. (The piece surpassed the previous record set by León Gallery for Ang Kiukok’s “Fishermen” at P68 million.)

Andres Bonifacio’s letter, 24th April 1897, written after the Tejeros Convention and a few days before his arrest: P5.6 million

León Gallery traditionally opens the year with the Asian Cultural Council Manila auction, which earmarks a portion of the proceeds for scholarships for Filipino artists to pursue their art abroad. Jose Joya was, in fact, the first recipient of such a grant from its precursor, the John D. Rockefeller Foundation in 1968.

The record-setting result also brought up the prices for two other Joyas: “Munting Gubat” at P8.7 million and the black and white mixed media “Zen Imagery” at P4.7 million.

Joya’s “elders” — Anita Magsaysay-Ho and Vicente Manansala — took in P35 million for the women winnowers and P28 million for the “Tres Marias,” respectively. Amorsolo’s bucolic “Noonday Meal” came in at P5.6 million; while BenCab’s “Women Waiting” featuring a haunting gallery of 17 females in baro’t saya, reaped a cool P5 million.

The Bonifacio letters and a document affirming Emilio Jacinto’s appointment as northern commander, along with its philatelic cover, were the next most-talked about. All together, the extremely rare and historically important ephemera brought in P16.2 million, with the most explosive letter, (dated 24 April 1897 and accusing the Magdalo chieftains of treason and betrayal in no uncertain terms) coming in at nearly P6 million. “This is clearly a win for Philippine history,” said Jaime Ponce de Leon of Leon Gallery. “Ultimately, we felt the outpouring of love for Andres Bonifacio by the number of visitors who came personally or called to make appointments to view the letters.”

It was amazing to consider that the Philippine Revolution was just a single generation away from Joya in the mid-20th century — although for the likes of action star Robin Padilla (who had played Bonifacio in a historical drama) it didn’t seem at all that it was 121 years ago.) Padilla had come to the auction to make a personal bid for the Bonifacio documents in order to make it clear to the public “who was the first president of the Philippines and to whom we owe our freedom.”

With remarkable prices luring once closely held treasures to change hands, one can only imagine at what next will appear at the country’s most awaited auctions.

Andres Barrioquinto’s “When Horses Gallop”: P16.4 million