15 ‘minor’ Marcos paintings seized

Imelda Marcos kisses the encasement of her late husband’s body. (Photo from http://scrapetv.com)

MANILA – Complying with an order from the Sandiganbayan, agents from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) yesterday seized 15 paintings from the Marcos residence.

Filadelfo Diaz said the NBI and PCGG agents, however, failed to recover eight expensive paintings ordered to be confiscated by the anti-graft court.

Former first lady Imelda Marcos’s chief of staff said that only the minor paintings were seized.

Of the 140 paintings in the Sandiganbayan’s order, only 15 artworks were recovered.

Diaz added that the agents failed to confiscate any artwork from the office of Mrs. Marcos at the House of Representatives.

He also revealed that only tarpaulin replicas were displayed at the House office of Mrs. Marcos.

“The total should have been 16 but one of the paintings was very big, almost as big as a door measuring about 4 x 8 feet,” said NBI-Reaction Arrest and Interdiction Division (RAID) acting chief Eric Isidoro.

The paintings, carried by the Sandiganbayan sheriff and representatives of the PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), were then brought to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Authorities said they would have to verify the authenticity of the 15 artworks.

“This would still be validated. It would be difficult to say at this time since these would still have to go through a series of examinations,” he said.

“There is a possibility that all the three ‘Mother and Child’ paintings are replicas, or maybe one is genuine and the two others are replicas,” he said.