Virata reaps P1.25 B from mom’s Chinese furniture collection
Investment banker Luis Juan Virata is flying home from New York this week, ready to play an early Santa to his wife’s and family’s chosen charities in Manila.
The classical Chinese furniture collection of Virata’s mother, the late Marie Theresa Lammoglia-Virata, as sold last week by Christie’s for over $25 million (about P1.25 billion), a record for the Philippines.
“The remarkable results generated from this sale will support the Virata family’s continued philanthropic legacy, with proceeds to be donated to various charitable organizations including Child Protection Network, ICanServe Foundation and Cribs Foundation,” said Jonathan Stone, Christie’s chairman for Asian art.
A snowstorm and freezing temperatures failed to dampen enthusiasm for the auction held Thursday at the Rockefeller Center, with sale results more than double the $12 million high-end
estimate.
A 16th-17th century circular incense stand made of rosewood turned out to be the surprise star of the event, selling for over $5.8 million against the minimum estimate of $400,000. Incense stand: Sold for $5.8 M
The centerpiece of the 86-lot collection, an 18th century rosewood bed with railings on three sides, went under the hammer for $3.6 million, against the $2-3 million preauction estimate.
A pair of rosewood armchairs dating back to the 17th century turned out to be another surprise favorite, with bidders pushing up the price to over $1.44 million from the minimum estimate of $300,000.
“Collected over 50 years with consultation from Sir John Addis, the British ambassador to the Philippines at the time, a keen collector of Chinese furniture, and legendary dealer and collector Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, the Virata collection included works with distinguished provenance, superior condition, and esteemed publication history,” Christie’s said.
The British auction house also helped generate preauction interest for the Virata collection by displaying selected pieces of the furniture on what it called a nonselling exhibition in Hong Kong last November.
Glock, Gutierrez get competitive heat
It looks like the plan of the major gun supplier for the Philippine National Police, Girme Gutierrez of Trust Trade, to re- supply the government with Glock handguns has gotten into a bidding jam.
Glock was supposed to have been the only contender — the 2017 bidding specified “strikerfired” ( instead of hammer- fired) pistols, of which Glocks are.
This year’s procurement of 26,408 handguns, worth P713 million, is essentially a continuation of the 2012 Glock contract with PNP.
Still, according to the grapevine, despite already being the PNP sidearm of choice, the US-made Glock 17 failed the three -- sand, water and drop — tests conducted on March 13 at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, just as it had failed the 2015 bidding.
Worse, instead of having the field all to itself, two other bidders emerged out of the woodwork to contest what has been, since the PNoy administration, a Glock grip on the police.
One, Intrade Asia Pacific Corp. represented by Urdaneta Village resident Randy Limjoco, is pushing for the new SIG-Sauer P320, which has just been picked by the US Army as its standard sidearm, beating Glock among other competitors.
Another surprise bidder, the Philippines’ own Armscor, with an entirely new handgun, the Rock Island Armory SF9, also a striker-fired pistol like Glock but, in the spirit of Trump’s “America First” protectionist swagger, made and fabricated in our very own Marikina.
With Glock posting the lowest bid (P24,830/gun), both Intrade (P27,000) and Armscor (P26,999) will still have to wait for the PNP’s Bids and Awards Committee to first declare Trust Trade/Glock to have failed the technical tests, disqualified in other words, before the two competitors will even be considered for the field tests.
As the police would shout during a tense stand-off, hold your fire!
Heard through the grapevine
The elections for the new set of officers for the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry will still be on March 27, but this early the smart money is already on vice president Domingo Yap instead of executive vice president Henry Lim Bon Liong succeeding outgoing president Angel Ngu.
Father of Bohol Representative and GMA-era agriculture secretary Arthur Yap, the elder Yap got a boost when no less than former president, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo rang up FFCCI chairman emeritus Lucio Tan to ask the taipan if he could give the elder Yap a little push.
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