EDITORIAL – National treasures

How many of you have seen Juan Luna’s masterpiece, now on display at the museum of the Government Service Insurance System? Not too many Filipinos appreciate fine art, which is why many living painters can hardly survive on their work and one of the nation’s top art galleries will soon close shop.

Juan Luna’s painting – Parisian Life – cost taxpayers a whopping P46 million. No matter what GSIS officials say, public funds paid for that painting. Even if the money was merely interest accrued or earnings from investments, as GSIS officials have explained, it was still P46 million earned from contributions of government workers. And no matter how the government tries to explain away this expenditure as a heroic effort to save a national treasure, the acquisition of the painting by an administration saddled with a P200-billion deficit raises questions about government priorities and sound fiscal management.

The GSIS bought two other paintings at that successful auction by Christie’s in Hong Kong two weeks ago: Fernando Amorsolo’s Under the Mango Tree for P4.5 million and Rice Field for P1.5 million. Were these purchases cleared with the GSIS board? With the Juan Luna painting belatedly declared as a national treasure, the GSIS can no longer dispose of it for profit. Does the Arroyo administration have an official policy of competing with the private sector in acquiring the works of prominent Philippine artists? Art connoisseurs have pointed out that Parisian Life is not even considered the best work of Juan Luna, and that the better ones have not yet even been officially classified as national treasures.

Oh well, GSIS General Manager Winston Garcia got the painting at more than three times the floor price, and now government workers are stuck with his investment. Let’s hope that Christie’s auction isn’t rocked by yet another scandal on price fixing.

In the meantime, someone should conduct an inventory of the works of Philippine artists and decide which ones should be classified as national treasures that can no longer be sold. If a private collector wants to dispose of his treasure and the GSIS is still hell-bent on "rescuing" the work of art from the hands of foreigners, it may be better for GSIS officials to simply approach the owner, appeal to his sense of patriotism and haggle over the price.

But before GSIS officials embark on yet another multimillion-peso buying spree using government workers’ money, the board should decide whether the state pension fund should be involved at all in collecting pricey works of art. There were two other Filipinos reportedly bidding for that Juan Luna, but they obviously could not match the funds of the GSIS. The next time Christie’s or Sotheby’s puts another work by a dead Philippine artist on the auction block, what will the GSIS do?