The botched sale of La Damita, surreptiously attributed to Felix Resurrection Hidalgo, sure put the credibility of a local auction house under fire. It is disconcerting that a fake can be put on the block with impunity. Reported to have been sold, the seller cannot be held liable.
A similar case involving a painting entitled The Discovery: A Scene from a Stage Play attributed to Juan Luna, was discovered from a catalogue by the Drouot-Richelieu auction house. It shows the same painting, but titled La femme trompee (or “the wrong woman”) and attributed to a P. Ribera. The serious issue here was The Discovery was authenticated by a known Luna expert.
There are other instances such as when Vicente Manansala’s The Birdman was put on auction by Christie’s, only to be pulled out when reported to be a forgery. This international auction house almost sold five fake Amorsolos in Singapore in 1997. Other fakes were a Mauro Malang Santos and Araceli Dans.
It pays for collectors to deal only with sellers with exceptional credibility. An auction house must give topmost importance to provenance. Auction previews are usually held so that prospective bidders can view the lots and clarify provenance and its authenticity. In the case of La Damita, however, the preview proved useless.
Hidalgo’s La Innocencia will be under the hammer at Leon Gallery’s The Kingly Treasures Auction 2016 this Dec. 3, 2016 at 2 p.m. Director Jaime Ponce de Leon assures it has an authentic provenance. As Lot 89, the 46” x 32” (117 cm x 81 cm) oil on canvas painting is signed and dated 1901 (lower right) by Hidalgo, provenance by Augusto “Toto” M R Gonzalez III. Starting bid is P10,000,000.
Read the details in catalog that shows interiors photos where La Inocencia once hanged. It part reads:
“La Inocencia, a beautiful young lady painted by Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo y Padilla in Paris in 1901, harks back to the happiest years of the affluent and elegant Filipino painter who had fallen in love with his Spanish model Maria Yrritia. He brought her all the way to Manila to meet his aristocratic mother and family. Predictably, Maria Yrritia’s modest origins met with stern disapproval from the super rich Barba Padilla de Resurreccion Hidalgo — “the Queen of the Pasig River” as she owned the biggest fleet of ‘cascos’ trading barges and a succession of warehouses that lined the river in Binondo and Tondo; it was a shipping and real estate fortune inherited from her father Narciso Padilla. Embittered, the couple returned to Spain and Felix never returned to his family and homeland. When he died, Maria Yrritia accompanied his remains and belongings back to Manila. She boarded a ship bound for Spain but never made it back as the ship sunk off South Africa.”
FILHARMONIC EXCITED TO COLLABORATE WITH SMART LAUNCHPAD WINNERS. When singers MJ Labenia and Lesha Litonjua and vlogger Tops Unay were declared the top three winners of Smart Launchpad, a search for the country’s most promising content creators, one of their prizes was a chance for a collaboration with international YouTube stars.
“This was a reason I joined Smart Launchpad. The chance at a collaboration with YouTube superstars is so exciting,” said Litonjua during the awarding ceremonies held at First Pacific Leadership Academy, Antipolo City.
The three were chosen from 100 finalists out of 1,537 entries from the Philippines. The three will fly to Los Angeles, California early next year for a shoot/collaboration with The Filharmonic, a vocal group composed of six Filipino-Americans.
The a capella group competed in NBC’s hit musical competition, made the semi-finals and joined The Sing-Off national tour. The Filharmonic, consisting of VJ Rosales, Joe Caigoy, Trace Gaynor, Barry Fortgang, Jules Cruz and Niko del Rey, was featured in the Universal Pictures hit movie, “Pitch Perfect 2.”
The group expressed its excitement over the collaboration with Labenia, Litojua and Unay.
“We just want to make sure they are put in positions where they will shine! They are all clearly very talented, so we will let them play to their strengths when it comes to personality and skill. We just want them to have fun and do what they do best, create and be themselves,” said Cruz, one of The Filharmonic’s vocalists.
The chance to work with their countrymen is something The Filharmonic is looking forward to. The group members are very proud of their Filipino ancestry.
“Our passion is to share our Filipino culture worldwide using our music and unique sound. We have learned and that we are yet to learn on this journey,” said Fortgang.
“Aside from performing a few OPM songs in our set, we like to incorporate a lot of choreography in it as well. When I watch Filipino performers on TV, it’s always a big production of singing and dancing and we like to combine the two to make the show fun and exciting,” said Caigoy.
Beat boxer del Rey urged content creators to “keep putting yourself out there and make your music heard. There will be ups and downs, but don’t give up, be yourself, do what you think is best for you and eventually you can make it.”
“The best way for performers to gain international attention is to keep putting out your best content as much as you can consistently. The more you produce, the more chances you will have to go viral. As long as the content is unique, you have a great chance of getting the world to see your talent!” said Caigoy when asked what advice he would give to young and untapped talents.
On going viral, Gaynor said, “timing, patience, consistency and inspiration to create are key ingredients to going viral. For us, as long as we can continue to share our love for music and be able to gain a new fan along the way, then that’s all that matters. Going viral is the cherry on top.”
Smart Launchpad is a talent search and content creation program that encourages the youth to showcase what they do best–whether it’s singing or dancing, doing make-up tutorials, sharing travel tips or making people laugh.
To demonstrate its fast and efficient Internet, Smart took its Launchpad Upload Stations to malls and schools all over the country. At the stations, content creators could make their entries on the spot and upload them on YouTube.
Smart Communications was overwhelmed by the success of the competition and plans to stage the competition next year.
TO FARM FILM FESTIVAL REDUX. Due to the tremendous success of the first edition, project coordinator director Maryo J. delos Reyes with festival organizer Dr. Milagros How, executive vice president of Universal Harvester, met with film directors and writers to discuss the launch of the 2nd ToFarm Film Festival 2017. With the festival theme “Planting the Seeds of Change,” it will be held from July 12 to 18, 2017. Deadline for the submission of screenplays is Dec. 16, 2016. Six scripts will be selected to receive seed money of P1.5 million each. To encourage participation, 50 script submissions will receive an incentive. Previous winners are qualified to join.
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Authentic Hidalgo goes on the block today
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