RECORD PR ICE

ON A RAINY, otherwise non-descript Saturday afternoon, art lovers gathered at the Peninsula Manila for The WellAppointed Life, Salcedo Auction’s annual weekend-long auction event. Little did collectors and attendees know that they would be there to witness, in person, a new world record for Philippine art.

Félix Resurrección Hidalgo’s “La Pintura” sold for an unprecedented PHP 78,256,000 (including buyer’s premium) on September 21, 2019, the highest ever for a work by the Filipino master. The Hidalgo work that last held the record was sold in 2018 in Madrid’s Subastas Segre, the oil work “Pareja de jóvenes tagalos ante un rio” for PHP 51,600,122. Through phone bids, “La Pintura,” which started at PHP 18 million, was at the center of a heated battle between four parties. In nine minutes, history was made, in front of a stunned audience.