National Museum invokes right over Rizal's 'Mona Lisa'

EYES WIDE OPEN

- IRIS GONZALES

Our national hero Jose Rizal must be smiling in his grave.

After a savage bidding war over Rizal's Josephine Sleeping, the National Museum of the Philippines put its own jaw-dropping epilogue to the historic Kingly Treasures auction of Leon Gallery held last Nov. 30.

The sculpture, made of plaster of Paris, portrayed Rizal's love, Josephine Bracken, sleeping peacefully, her curves outlined under the sheets.

It was created during Rizal's isolation and exile in distant Dapitan in Zamboanga, months before he would meet his martyrdom on Bagumbayan Field or today's Luneta, according to an article by Lisa Guerrero-Nakpil published in The STAR last week.

Ten bidders joined the bidding, which ultimately fetched a whopping P31 million.

Days later, however, the National Museum exercised its law-mandated "right of first refusal" for the Rizal sculpture and three other rare finds.

This marked a first for Philippine art, according to Guerrero-Nakpil.

On the day of the auction, National Museum director general Jeremy Barns had already said that the museum might exercise its right of first refusal.

When I asked Leon Gallery director Jaime Ponce de Leon about this, he said that indeed, the National Museum made its move.

Here is an excerpt from the National Museum's letter to Jaime.