Hooray! The Amorsolo painting that was stolen from the Hofieña home and private museum was recovered by the National Bureau of Investigation. The thieves showed off their superior amateurism when they tried to sell it for P3.5 million and were caught in a buy bust operation that was mounted as soon as authorities got a whiff of the sale attempt. It makes one wonder if they tried to sell it on Facebook Marketplace or Carousell.
Anyway, the stupidity of the thieves is our collective gain, for the 1936 painting titled “Mango Harvesters” could easily have been lost forever to an unscrupulous private collector, had the purchase already been arranged beforehand, as it should’ve been whenever such rare and easily identifiable treasures are involved.
It is good to know that the police and NBI are capable of running an investigation that produced quick results, as it couldn’t have been just poor quality thieves that closed the case, but good police work must’ve come into play as well. There was no need to tokhang and EJK, no one-sided gun battles that could’ve gotten blood spilled on the masterpiece. It was as simple as investigating, maybe getting lucky, laying the trap, catching the perpetrators, and recovering the stolen Amorsolo.
Hopefully the Hofieñas get their painting back, and if the public is lucky, we may even get to see it at their home turned private museum in due time. There would probably be additional security measures if ever, which most other museums that have valuables or masterpieces on display should be putting in place, especially after the most recent heist.
The theft of the Amorsolo painting, which would’ve denied us a piece of our heritage, along with its fairly quick recovery, had me thinking of the other ways that our culture and heritage can be taken from us.
Aside from the theft of a painting or museum piece, other potential tragedies that could deny us a chance to interact with parts of our heritage would be if a museum, whether public or private, is forced to shut down due to lack of interest and support. In the case of the Hofieña private museum, which was opened to the public during the time of Ramon Hofieña, it was able to remain open even after his death because his brother, Boy, took up the cudgels. If that hadn’t happened, the public would’ve lost any opportunity to enjoy the contents of the museum, which might even be divided up among the heirs who would have a legitimate claim to it.
On the topic of heirs, how they handle the treasures that they inherit also determines its fate. Some might opt to sell off the valuables, while others might opt to keep those valuables for their own. What is important is that if a city wants to keep a private museum open, it will have to negotiate with the heirs, providing the necessary incentives for them to continue operating the museum, because if you come to think of it, it often makes sense to just sell everything inside and split up the proceeds. This becomes even more challenging if the remaining heirs are at odds with each other, and would rather not embark on a shared project with people that they don’t really like.
If you come to think of it, a private museum closing because of unwilling heirs, lack of interest, disputes, commercialization, or lack of profitability or even just feasibility; is essentially the same as having its prized collections, such as an Amorsolo painting in this case, being stolen.
Could it be that we only cared about the theft of the Amorsolo because it was taken from a museum, where it was on display to the public. If it were stolen from a private gallery, would we have cared as much, since we never had a chance to see it anyway?
Many of us take museums for granted because we don’t really appreciate the displays. Now that one of the few private museums on this island that had something of value on display has been victimized by thieves, should we expect the quality of the displays to further deteriorate? I’m expecting this because improving security comes with a cost that many museums that are already struggling to stay afloat might not be willing to shoulder, and if given a choice between staying open but not improving security, and closing down, most people running a museum would probably opt to put the valuable items in a secure place, away from risks that come with putting it on public display, but still stay open, albeit with lower quality/value exhibits. Unless the local government steps in with security-related tax incentives or financial assistance, that may be the way our underfunded museums will have to go.
If something like that happens, then the perpetrators of the 2024 Amorsolo heist may have failed to profit, but the downside is they might have succeeded in depriving the public of access to such cultural and heritage treasures.*
