‘More of Luna’s paintings may have been lost’

While the controversial purchase by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) of Juan Luna’s painting "Parisian Life" preserved a national heritage for a very steep price, many more of his estimated 500 works may have long been lost.

Former Ateneo Art Gallery director Prof. Eric Torres complained that the country has not yet established a system that would track down the works of our many national artists leaving them at the mercy of their ignorant possessors.

In the case of Luna, Torres said "Parisian Life" is just one of the several works the artist is believed to have made, but with only a fraction of them known to be in the hands of private collectors or institutions. Torres said that out of these Luna paintings only about 35 are in the Lopez Museum in Pasig, the biggest known Luna collection.

Torres, who has been studying Luna for the last three years, said another art expert, Arsenio Manuel, published in 1957 – in time for the centenary of Luna’s birth–a book called "Dictionary of Philippine Biographies." The book reportedly documented almost a hundred works of Luna, but according to Torres, many more were not cited and may never be known to Filipinos.

"In the last war I believed many of Luna’s works were destroyed. I just do not know what happened to the rest," said the former Ateneo art director.

The most famous Luna work, the "Spoliarium," however, is still at the oft-burglarized National Museum, spared perhaps by its sheer size.

The works of other national artists like Carlos "Botong" Francisco, however, appear headed for worse fate. One of Francisco’s works displayed at the GSIS museum have stains.

The "Parisian Life" was purchased by the GSIS for P45 million, three times its starting bid price of P15 million when auctioned in Hong Kong on Oct. 27.