Public Goods Preserved by Private Hands

The discovery of a lost national treasure earlier this year has sparked discussions on the nature of art collecting.

By Pao Vergara
October 31, 2023

Who owns national treasures?

In July 2023, the nation witnessed the unveiling of a “lost” painting by national artist and hero Juan Luna.

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Titled “Hymen, oh Hyménée!” and completed between 1886-1887, the painting won a bronze medal in Spain as Luna and his compatriots won silver and gold medals for other works submitted. Luna kept the painting until his death in 1899. It later resurfaced in the hands of an aristocratic family in Spain, 1920. Attempts were made to purchase it in the 1970s and 1990s.

It found itself in Filipino hands once again, specifically in the hands of a private collector and auction house stakeholder. “Hymen, oh Hyménée!” is currently on display for a year at the Ayala Museum, a private foundation.

Given the painting’s and its painter’s provenance, it’s arguably a national treasure on the level of Luna’s “Spoliarium,” a permanent fixture in the National Museum.

In February 2022, a collective of well, collectors called the Ethics of Collecting released A Code of Conduct for Contemporary Art Collectors on their website. They hope more art industries around the world adopt the practices outlined. They acknowledge that collectors can both benefit or harm the art ecosystem, either truly supporting or subtly exploiting artists.

Some, like The Art News editor-at-large Melanie Gerlis, believe this is not enough. She criticizes how the onus is placed on collectors, with the focus being on very obvious things, likening it to “don’t break the law.” Writing in March 2022, she concludes that “a call for structural change towards a more ethical environment needs to begin elsewhere in the market system.”

Gerlis notes how “collecting is still about one person, acting on a whim or an urge—and our entire industry is currently structured to service that moment.”

Nonetheless, in the Philippine setting, collectors do have a part to play in shaping the cultural landscape, all as the nation remains plagued by dwindling historical memory, important cultural work being drowned out by other priorities, and a languishing education system. 

Senior UNESCO legal officer Marina Schneider believes “the art market exists [because] this is important economically for the country. Therefore, it must be protected. The art market, therefore, must be legal. But that is not enough. It must also be ethical. However, ethics and laws are not always changing at the same pace. Most of the time, unfortunately, the laws are behind,as social and cultural contexts evolve more quickly. How are art markets fed? By objects of legal origin, of course, but also of illegal origins.”

This applies to the Philippine context as well where art is a largely unregulated industry, not subject to taxation and other practices applied to other markets.

A popular older artist who requested anonymity shared that he prefers to channel all business talk to the gallery managing him, recalling how during his younger days, people approached him only to later forge his works. The monetary value of his works has increased exponentially since he started around two decades ago.

The purchase and resale of artworks could also be a front for hiding ill-gotten wealth. As Gerlis notes in her March 2022 essay, “collecting is a high-end hobby.”

Does this also apply in the Philippines?

March 2023 data from the Philippine Statistics Authority shows that art sold in galleries accounts for a very small percent of the total creative economy in the country, which by itself takes around 7% of the national GDP. Data from the Statista website even reveals that the total revenue of the Philippine creative economy dipped sharply between 2012 and 2022.

Despite this, an organizer of Art in the Park told me their fair has been growing since its first run, and that they welcome other fairs that have sprung up in recent years as a good sign.

It can thus be inferred that while few Filipinos collect art, these Filipinos are collecting even more art, confirming what Gerlis writes about collecting being a high-end hobby.

Of course, there are alternate markets, and younger collectors from more diverse backgrounds, but so far, data is scant on how these spaces are performing. What we know is that the country’s fine art and national treasures are largely in private collections then loaned to museums.

Writing for Artsy.net, critic Robert Storr echoes Gerlis in that “works are hostage to that particular collector’s vanity, and the public can only see them under certain circumstances.” As such, despite their mandate, museums are still at the mercy of collectors, and curators and historians work with a limited canvass.

While museums serve public interests, they are largely made up of private collections.

In the Philippines as in most of the world, collectors are the ones with means to preserve and maintain paintings. This is especially important in our humid climate. Museums, especially those funded by tax money, on the other hand, have the stated goal as keeper of memory and shaper of identity for a nation and its people, yet rarely have the means to carry out said goal.

Arguably, a work from a primary figure in modern Philippine history such as Juan Luna should be owned by the National Museum. It’s interesting to note how his most popular work, the “Spoliarium,” never ended up private hands, held directly by first the Spanish, then Philippine governments.

Nonetheless, collectors currently hold a lot of power relative to the rest of the art ecosystem, that is, relative to artists, curators, art historians, and museums. For masterworks to truly end up in public hands, other systems first need to be in place. For now, it’s private individuals doing what is essentially a public service within a market that needs more legal scrutiny.