Death, divorce, debt and duties

That virulent tiny, tiny virus may have upended everything around us, with our economy blighted by recession and scorching hot inflation but the extraordinary world of art collection remains unscathed and appetite for art among the country’s billionaires, the well-heeled crowd, is as strong as ever.

What was true then is still a reality today – true art collection is still inseparably linked to the nobility, the royalty, the uber wealthy, for the same reasons.

You see, art auctions, so goes the story, trace their history back to the Roman times to resolve cases of insolvency or to dispose of the spoils of war.

Similarly, centuries on, people continue to flock to auctions to sell their art mostly because of the four Ds — death, divorce, debt and duties, says Jaime Ponce de Leon, director of León Gallery, the most trusted and go-to auction house of collectors, new and old alike.

The most common reason is managing a deceased individual’s estate, although divorces have also fueled recent sales in global auction houses.

For instance, a good proportion of Sotheby’s recent sales came from the $246-million sale of the Macklowe collection after the divorce of property tycoon Harry Macklowe from his wife. In total, the Macklowe sale, which started in 2021, achieved $922 million, reports The Guardian.

Against this backdrop, León Gallery’s first big auction this year, the upcoming Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Auction 2023 to be held on Feb. 18, gathers a rare collection of some of the world’s finest art mostly by our very own masters. The result is a feast for the senses, teeming with exceptional beauty, madness and provenance.

Provenance, indeed, because each piece tells a story – from the mundane to the whimsical to the enigmatic.

Stories and secrets

The narratives behind the pieces to be auctioned or their respective journeys through time are as interesting as the artwork themselves.

Why for instance, would businesswoman Alice Eduardo give up her prized mural-sized Jose Joya masterpiece to be the cover piece of this year’s auction? After all, the artwork has been a fixture in the living room of her glittery Forbes Park home.

“She felt it had a certain symmetry for giving back since Joya was the first Filipino to receive a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, which is the precursor of today’s ACC,” says Ponce de Leon.

Or how for instance did Anita Magsaysay-Ho’s Fruit Market, from a Philippine Art Gallery show in 1957, suddenly resurface? It once belonged to an American lumber magnate from Mindanao, Frank Anderson, says Ponce de Leon.

The collection is teeming with rare finds from every century of Philippine artistry, including the Despujol Dagger from 1897 which not only exemplifies the craftsmanship of Filipino blademaking but transports us back to the time of our National Hero Jose Rizal, Ponce de Leon adds.

You see, Lt. Ramon Despujol of the aristocratic Despujol-de la Rocha family of Spain and Filipinas is the man who arrested Jose Rizal prior to the latter’s exile to Dapitan.

Going once, going twice

The ACC auctions, which usually open the year for León Gallery, attract the most generous donations from collectors because of their cause – sending Filipino artists to the world.

Since ACC’s founding in 1963, over 300 Filipino artists have been given fellowship grants that facilitated creative explorations and development through the grants program. It promotes international dialogue and mutual understanding through cultural exchange from the Philippines to the US or anywhere in Asia, says Ernest Escaler, chairman of the Asian Cultural Council Philippines Foundation.

It’s exciting indeed as hammers start banging on auction day, Feb. 18, at the León Gallery in Legazpi Village, Makati. The event will very likely turn into a social competition among billionaire collectors characterized by the rhythmic and frantic repetition of numbers and words spoken by auctioneers.

Rebuilding Perhaps, this strong appetite for art, especially after COVID-19, is similar to what happened in the Philippines after the second world war, when new homes and offices needed new art.

“Post-pandemic, we’re in a similar state of re-building,” Ponce de Leon says.

Auctions give collectors – new and seasoned alike – the chance to acquire art that has been “vetted, selected and curated by some of the country’s greatest eyes,” he says.

A global market

The global art market has actually grown into a multibillion-dollar global industry – with an annual turnover of about $60 billion, according to Artland.com, with art auctions as one of its focal points.

This is not surprising because, as Readers Digest points out, for the last 200 years, industrialists and HNWI have been ostentatiously collecting wealth through art galleries and collections.

“From Rockefeller and Carnegie and other US industrial leaders to diamond speculators in Europe, art has been firmly in the hands of the richest for a long time.”

Luxury tax I doubt that Rep. Joey Salceda’s proposed luxury tax which will cover antiques valued at P100,000 or more and paintings valued at more than P1 million would discourage people from buying art.

León Gallery expects to shatter new records in the upcoming auction because, whether we like it or not, the uber wealthy here in the Philippines see art not just as something to put on their walls but as an investment.

And art investment, here as it is elsewhere, is symbolic of wealth and success and for many, a way to broadcast this to the world.

So if collectors keep buying prized pieces for a good cause and in the process, enable stories from our past to be told and retold, what’s not to like?

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