This December 4 at 2 p.m., Galerie León invites you to the Royal Treasures auction. The event will auction several important works of art to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and its ART FOR ALL program and International Care Ministries (ICM).

The Metropolitan Museum of Manila and its ART FOR ALL program see the Met’s mission to evolve and adapt with the changing times, staying true to its commitment to accessibility by moving to its new location in the center flourishing culture of Bonifacio Global City.

The much-anticipated reopening of the museum is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022, in a 3,000-square-meter space spread over three levels designed by Brooklyn-based, Filipino-born architect Carlos Arnaiz.

“The move from the Met to BGC is a timely transformation in the course of the institution that doesn’t just sit on its laurels. This new location not only embodies a change in architecture, but also a vigorous overhaul of its collections, exhibits, curatorial directions and public engagement, ”said Joselito Campos, Jr., Chairman of the Met’s Board of Trustees. .

With its new home, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila is also rebranding itself with a fresher, more eye-catching nickname – The M, further solidifying its reputation as the Philippines’ premier contemporary art institution.

“December is always a special month, not least because it’s a time of sharing,” says Jaime L. Ponce de Leon, director of the León gallery. “So I would like to invite all of you to participate in a most worthy segment of the Royal Treasures Auction for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.”

Five works will be auctioned for the benefit of The M’s. Among these, three paintings, designated as “The Collector’s Premium”, come from the collection of the country’s greatest art connoisseurs: Mario and Mimi Que, Manuel and Alice Que, and Paulino and Hetty Que.

Ponce de Leon shares that they are at the top of the list of collectors who have auctioned works of art. They will donate all of the profits to fully support the museum. Included in the selection are Ang Kiukok’s Table with Avocados (by Paulino and Hetty Que), Jigger Cruz’s Take me to himself (by Mario and Mimi Que) and Raffy Napay’s Trees (by Manuel and Alice Que).

The second institution to benefit from The Kingly Treasures de Leon is the International Care Ministries (ICM), a non-profit organization founded in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, in 1992. The group operates in the Visayas and Mindanao, supplying twelve regional bases with nearly 20 million people. Of these, 2.2 million live in ultra-poverty, or those who live on less than $ 0.50 per day. These people are for whom the ICM dedicates its philanthropic efforts.

“Even before the virus hit, their lives were unimaginable,” said David Sutherland, president of ICM.

Since its inception, ICM has already helped over a million people in ultra-poor communities through its holistic four-month weekly program called “Transform”. Comprised of four core areas – Values, Livelihoods and Savings, Health and Medical Interventions and Education – ICM’s “Transform” aims to equip the ultra-poor with the training and skills to help them lift them out of poverty. .

In support of the ICM, the León Gallery will donate the profits from the fifteen works put up for auction. The selection includes works by Betsy Westendorp, Kenneth Montegrande, Augusto Albor, Carlo Magno, Jose Joya, Norberto Carating, Phyllis Zaballero, Manuel Baldemor, Remy Boquiren, Carmen Brias, Denise Weldon and Juvenal Sansó.

In addition to its generous support for these two institutions, Galerie León will continue its long-awaited end-of-year battle for auction supremacy.

Hernando R. Ocampo “Mutants “-A, belongs to the artist’s “Period of the Mutants” (1964 – 1968). According to Angel G. de Jesus, Ocampo’s most authoritative biographer, this period was inspired by the film The beginning of the end, which inspired Ocampo to paint “symbols of mutants and fantasies of the devastation caused by nuclear war”. Alfonso Ossorio’s younger brother Frederick once owned the room. He acquired it during the inaugural “Gallery 7” exhibition in Ocampo.

The timeless elegance of Fernando Amorolo’s works is the crème de la crème of the auction. works of the centenary of the maestro illustrating the idyllic pre-war countryside—Terraced agricultural land and Sunset over the stream—Of the Doña Tarsila Laperal Mendoza collection are up for tender. Manila fire and City festival– both from the Don Anselmo Trinidad collection – juxtaposes wartime and peacetime in the Philippines. A piece illustrating a lasting theme, Under the mango tree, is one of the first emblematic pieces of Amorsolo Under the Mango Tree paintings.

Meanwhile, an imposing Amorsolo, the 70 ″ x 52 ″ Portrait of a Lady in a Maria Clara Dress (Portrait of Doña Leonila Mercado Yatco-Yaptinchay), depicts a woman known as Doña Ilay, the mixed-race Chinese matriarch of the influential Yatco and Yaptinchay families of Biñan, Laguna. Doña Ilay was also related by blood to José Rizal through the latter’s father, Francisco Mercado, who was an elderly brother of Doña Ilay’s mother, Bonifacia.

The “auction queen”, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, returns with her flagship work entitled Fish sellers. According to Leon curator Lisa Guerrero Nakpil, this is “a work in the rare series first premiered in 1975 that features a single bare-headed woman among the swarm of recognizable Magsaysay-Ho women wearing headscarves on their hair ”. The painting was acquired by famous New York-trained surgeon Dr. Roberto Macasaet and his wife Teresita, during a Magsaysay-Ho exhibition in 1975 at the Philippine Village Hotel near Nayong Pilipino.

Contemporary Filipino art is represented by Annie Cabigting Riders on a beach, a gray garden that passes to the Fundacion Bayeler, a rare work by Brian Uhing titled Abandoned Monuments, and Benedicto Cabrera Mother and child and two men (Los Escribas) from his famous Larawan series.

These majestic lots are open to visitors from November 27 to December 3, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Saturday to Friday, at León Gallery, G / F Eurovilla 1, Rufino corner Legazpi Streets, Legaspi Village, Makati City. This event is co-presented by ANCX.ph.

For more information, send an email [email protected] or contact +632 8856-27-81. To browse the Royal Treasures auction catalog, visit leon-gallery.com. For updates, follow León Gallery on their social media pages: Facebook and Instagram.

Image courtesy of Galerie León – “Six Cyclists” by Arturo Luz