US court reveals secret of Marcos artworks
Prosecutors reveal case against Marcos' secretary and relatives over the US$32 million sale of Monet painting, and bids to sell other prize works
In late 1985, with the end of the Marcos regime in the Philippines in sight, a large truck pulled up in front of the Upper East Side townhouse where Imelda Marcos stayed and threw parties while in New York.
Crates were seen stacked on the pavement, and by the time the new government took control of the nation in 1986 and reclaimed the house, the majestic paintings that had hung on its walls, including one from the water-lily series by Claude Monet, had disappeared.
The famed artworks remained missing for more than two decades, their location and ownership a mystery.
That all changed on Tuesday, when the personal secretary to Marcos, Vilma Bautista - long a suspect in the theft of the missing masterpieces - and two of Bautista's nephews were charged with trying to sell the paintings.
They succeeded in selling the best known, Monet's (1899), two years ago for US$32 million, even though the London buyer had reservations about whether Bautista and her nephews were the rightful owners, according to an indictment.
The former secretary, Bautista, 74, who has homes in New York and on Long Island, was named, along with Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and their New York lawyers, as defendants in a suit brought in New York State Supreme Court in 1986 that sought to return the Marcoses' holdings to the Philippines government.
Prosecutors accused Bautista of secretly keeping numerous works of art that had been acquired by the Marcoses for nearly a quarter of a century. Beginning in 2009, Bautista and her nephews began efforts to sell some of the artwork discreetly, according to the indictment.
