Luna’s Parisian now on display at National Museum

MANILA, Philippines – The “Parisian Life” painting of Filipino painter and revolutionary Juan Luna can now be viewed at the National Museum after being displayed for about a decade at the headquarters of pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

President Aquino will witness on Monday afternoon, October 29, the formal opening of a gallery wing at the National Museum displaying Luna’s famous painting, as well as the works of National Artists Fernando C. Amorsolo, Carlos “Botong” Francisco, Vicente S. Manansala, Hernando R Ocampo, Ang Kiukok, Bencab, and National Artist-Elect Federico Aguilar y Alcuaz. The list also includes the works of Sanso, Blanco, Rodriguez Sr., and Galicano.

“We are happy to partner with the National Museum, the institution tasked to preserve and promote the country’s cultural and artistic heritage,” GSIS President and General Manager Robert G. Vergara said in a statement on October 29.

“Exhibiting our collection in the Museum makes it accessible to a wider public,” he added.

The event highlights an agreement GSIS and the National Museum entered into last February. The agreement includes the transfer to the Musuem and management of GSIS’s art collection “to preserve, maintain, secure and promote the collection.”

The Museum, in turn, allocates an area renamed as the Government Service Insurance Wing, which has 3 large galleries with high ceilings and cream-colored walls.

The transfer of the art works has been an offshoot of the Vergara-led GSIS board’s review of the policies of the previous pension fund leaders. 

Vergara said that “preserving and maintaining an art collection is beyond the mandate of the GSIS as a social insurance institution and insurer of government properties.”

Under Wilson Garcia, GSIS purchased in 2002 the “Parisian Life” from an auction of Christie’s in Hong Kong at a hefty price of P46 million. Critics did not take Garcia’s move well, stressing that the pension fund needs to be more prudent with its members’ money. – Rappler.com