Which Crazy Rich Asian is coming home with this?
“Finally, a Botong,” sighs Jaime Ponce de
Leon of Carlos ‘Botong’ V. Francisco’s Nose
Flute, which is going under the hammer this Saturday, Sept. 8, at Leon Gallery, starting at an unprecedented opening bid of P28 million. “A Botong of this proportion is like a needle in a haystack. Very few families can have a Botong like this,” adds Jaime of the 1955, 48” x 72” oil on double canvas. He points at the stitches in the lower midsection of the painting, which indicate that two pieces of canvas were actually fused for this oil painting, making it an “oil on double canvas.”
So why would this painting land in the arms of a Crazy Rich Asian? For the simple reason that art connoisseurs believe it would eventually fetch at least P50 million.
Now, that’s for Crazy Rich, art-loving Asians. Only.