Luna or bust: Lost historic artwork finds way home

MOLDED IN FRIENDSHIP | The bronze bust of Filipino painter Juan Luna was from a mold made by his Spanish friend, sculptor Mariano Benlliure. It officially returned to its prewar home, the National Museum, on Oct. 10, 2023. (Photo GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — When you walk into the National Museum of Fine Arts, past the metal detectors and the big wooden double doors, you enter a cavernous hall. There you behold the masterpiece for which the gallery is named, the most famous painting in the Philippines by the most famous artist in Philippine history: “Spoliarium” by Juan Luna (1857-1899).

Today, “Spoliarium” — which first rose to fame as the Luna opus that won the First-Class Medal at the 1884 Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid — has a new companion. On an adjacent pedestal is a life-size bust of the artist himself.

The work, “Bust of Juan Luna y Novicio” by the Spanish artist Mariano Benlliure (1862-1947), allows visitors to marvel both at the creation on canvas and its creator in bronze.

“It’s the whole Luna experience,” said Ramon A.S. Lerma, proprietor of Salcedo Auctions, which played a part in how the bust got here.

On Tuesday, the bust’s owners, MIB Capital Corp., formally donated it to the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) in a turnover ceremony held at the Spoliarium Hall and witnessed by NMP boards of trustees chair Andoni Aboitiz, NMP director general Jeremy Barns and MIB chair Marilou Cristobal. Guests included first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Sen. Nancy Binay.

READ: Long-lost Luna ‘greatest PH art find in history’

Artist-hero a rarity

“It’s very important for art history both on the artistic side and the historical side,” Barns said in an Inquirer interview, referring to Benlliure’s work. “It’s a masterpiece made by a master sculptor in Spain who knew Luna from when they were students together until it was cut by Luna’s death in 1899.”

“The Philippines is one of the rare countries in the world where one of your heroes is an artist,” Lerma said.

“It’s only the Philippines where, instead of the Michelangelos and the Da Vincis and the Monets, the most important artist in the mind of Filipinos is Juan Luna. And that’s because it has been ingrained in our minds that he is a person who has really helped to define the Filipino nation. His struggles, his artistry, his creativity, everything about him is so Filipino.”

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War survivor

How the bust wound up in its latest place of honor is in itself a story of artistry, comradeship, history, serendipity and, ultimately, generosity.

Luna and Benlliure were close friends; the Filipino master painted two portraits of his Spanish peer. But they were also rivals, so to speak: Benlliure won the Second Place Medal at the same Madrid Exposición. He would make the mold for the Luna bust later that year.

In 1922, the Spanish government commissioned Benlliure to cast a bronze bust from the mold as a gift to the Philippines. The finished work fittingly found a home at the National Library, but the building was all but destroyed in the Battle of Manila in 1945. The bust, among many other priceless artworks, was thought lost.

But the bust somehow showed up in the rubble and a possibly apocryphal story later spread about sculptor Irineo Cristobal buying it from either a pushcart vendor or a junkyard worker for P5. Being a sculptor himself, Cristobal may have recognized the bust for what it was, thanks to the distinctive maker’s marks on the nape.

The bust was next acquired by antique store proprietor Elsie Cadapan, who then sold it to East Asia Corp. for Antiques and Antiquities, an MIB subsidiary, in 1979. It has been in MIB’s vault since as part of its art investments.

“It was a beautiful piece, and so we acquired it with the intention that, at some point in the future, we were going to part with it,” Cristobal said.

Pulled out of auction

That point had come, and MIB consigned the bust with Salcedo Auctions, which included the work in its Sept. 16 “The Well-Appointed Life” auction and catalog. Lerma recalled: “I thought it was the proper thing to do because it’s all part of due diligence. The information is there, the documentation is out there, we would be remiss in our duty if we didn’t put all of the evidence regarding the provenance of the piece in that catalog.”

Since the bust was thought lost, its inclusion in the catalog immediately drew the NMP’s attention.

“Suddenly, it comes to light,” Barns said. “It’s there. The description matches what we know.” So, the NMP wrote what everyone agreed was “a very polite letter” to Salcedo to pull out the bust from the auction.

According to Lerma, it was an easy decision to make. On Sept. 15, on the eve of the auction, the announcement was made.

The NMP and MIB sat down to discuss what to do with the bust. Cristobal said. “We met our board and National Museum said it believes that it is the same piece that was gifted to the national government and it will effectively belong to the people. ‘Give it a home where generations will have the chance to appreciate it,’ we said OK. Between selling it to a private collector or turning it over to the National Museum, it is a no-brainer.”

“It’s a huge deal for those of us who work here, and many other people who love the museum know how much we lost in 1945,” Barns said. “And to get anything that we used to have from before the war, especially something important like this, that was a major donation.”

A good Luna year

In a statement issued for the Oct. 10 turnover rites, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the work “reminds us of the world-class talent and creativity of the Filipino people and the deep and profound connection we share with our heroes and our past.”

In response, Aboitiz said the museum would be excited to let more Filipinos from all walks of life see the treasured art piece.

It has been a good year for Luna. Earlier this year, his long-lost 1887 painting, “Hymen, oh Hyménée!” was loaned to the Ayala Museum by collector Jaime Ponce de Leon.

The donation of the Luna bust also comes days before the artist’s 166th birth anniversary on Oct. 25.

Barns invited the public to see the bust themselves: “It shows, especially to young Filipinos, Luna as a young man at the height of his powers. It shows world-class skill and artistry and it has a story that everyone should know.”

“It’s a marvelous thing,’’ Lerma added. “That’s as close a likeness as we have in terms of his visage. It’s almost as if he’s standing right in front of us. This is an opportunity for everyone to come face-to-face with history.”