[MSN] Manansala portrait also missing from NPC

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Manansala portrait also missing from NPC
Neal Cruz 
MANILA, Philippines--Not many know it, but there is another art treasure missing from the National Press Club (NPC) building. That is the portrait of National Artist Vicente Manansala that used to hang beside the mural on press freedom that he painted. It disappeared at about the same time the mural did. It was probably given or sold to the unknown buyer as a bonus. It was a good likeness of the maestro and could fetch a minor fortune.
Where did the money go? The NPC officers are not saying. That portrait belongs to NPC members, not to the NPC president(?) or any of the other officers(?). The NPC book of accounts does not say how much the club received for that portrait. They should tell the members what happened to the portrait.

(I placed question marks after "president" and "officers" because they were not elected by the members. Like President[?] Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to whom they are making "sipsip" [sucking up], their legitimacy is under question. No wonder they love each other. During the regular NPC elections, they held their own election in the parking lot and lost. They went to court and asked for new elections which the court, surprisingly, granted. The group that won refused to participate in the new election, claiming it was illegal, so the present officers[?] were proclaimed by default. The other group has questioned that proclamation in court, but the case has not moved for almost two years now. They took their oaths of office before Ms Arroyo in Malacañang. Birds of a feather flock together.)

In justifying the censorship of the new mural painted by the Neo-Angono Artists Collective, NPC president(?) Roy Mabasa said the artists "did not follow their instructions." Obviously, Mabasa is ignorant of etiquette in art. You do not censor or alter a work of art without the artist's approval. If you don't like the painting, you return it to the artist. Mabasa should have returned the mural to the Angono Collective if he didn't like it. He didn't have the right to alter it. That work of art belongs to the artists even if the NPC paid for it. It is a work of art and not the same as a piece of clothing that you are free to alter after you buy it. Tampering with a work of art without the consent of the artist is sacrilege in the art world, and artists, art critics and art lovers are understandably outraged. (When I had that mural cleaned and retouched after it was damaged by a fire, I had Manansala himself do it with the help of other artists under his direction.)

The general membership did not ask Mabasa to have a new mural made to replace the original one that he surreptitiously sold. They want the original Manansala mural returned. And the Manansala portrait.

Mabasa and the NPC board probably thought that a new mural would assuage the outrage of the members over the secret sale of the original. That would have been a profitable swap for them. They got P10 million for the old one and paid only P900,000 for the new one. That's like the trick in Aladdin of offering "new lamps for old."

But Mabasa et al. are not fooling anybody. The NPC members want nothing less than the return of the original. What Mabasa et al. are trying to do is like swapping the Mona Lisa with a piece done by Peck Piñon.

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) also wants the return of the Manansala mural. It claims ownership of that valuable mural and has sued the NPC board, the unknown buyer and the agent (Odette Alcantara of Heritage Art Gallery) for qualified theft.

The NPC building was built with a loan from the GSIS with the lot and building as collateral. When the NPC did not repay the loan, the GSIS foreclosed the mortgage, and the lot and buildings became the property of the GSIS. When the NPC did not pay the real estate taxes through the years, the Manila treasurer sold the property at public auction as the law requires and the GSIS bought it. Thus, the state insurance firm owns the NPC property twice over.

Nevertheless, the GSIS allowed the NPC to use the building for free. The NPC has not paid a single centavo in rent to the GSIS through all the years. Instead of gratitude, the GSIS said in its complaint, the NPC repaid its generosity by "stealing" the Manansala mural and selling it for P10 million. At least P3 million of that has already been spent.

So the GSIS told the NPC to vacate the property and has asked the court to eject the "squatters." The GSIS is justified in throwing out the present officers for their ingratitude. The NPC has not said anything in its defense except that the mural is not a part of the building and therefore does not belong to the GSIS. The latter says it belongs to the millions of GSIS members and that it is the duty of its officers to get it back.

But the judge is sitting on the case. Is he or she in cahoots with the NPC board?

I was a witness to the origin of that mural when I was with the old Manila Chronicle then owned by the Lopez family. The NPC building was then still being built. As their contribution to the building, the Lopezes decided to commission Manansala to paint the mural and donate it to the NPC. It was painted by the artist directly on the lawanit walls of the dining room, even incorporating the air-conditioning ducts and serving counter and door in the design. It was not painted on canvas outside and then brought into the building like an easel painting.

Therefore, it is part of the building it owns, the GSIS claims, and when the NPC sold it without its knowledge and permission (and the NPC members), that was qualified theft.

Return the Manansala mural and portrait!

( www.inquirer.net )



http://www.asianjournal.com/?c=193&a=24144