The GSIS Art Museum

Spoliarium, Most Famous JUAN LUNA's Painting
The Spoliarium is a painting by Filipino artist Juan Luna. The painting was submitted by Luna to the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884, where it garnered a gold medal. In 1886, it was sold to the Diputación Provincial de Barcelona for 20,000 pesetas. It currently hangs in the main gallery at the ground floor of the National Museum of the Philippines, and is the first work of art that greets visitors upon entry into the museum.

JUAN LUNA's Painting worth 46 Million Pesos.
The GSIS said its purchase of the painting by Juan Luna, also a key figure in the struggle against Spanish colonization centuries ago, was meant to “save a piece of Philippine history.” But politicians and other critics said the government agency had wasted the badly needed resources of this poor country by buying it.

The controversial oil painting shows a woman sitting in a Paris cafe against the backdrop of three men in a huddle — Luna, Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal and Ariston Bautista — all of whom had spent years of exile in Europe while campaigning against Spain’s colonization of the Phillipines.

This South-east Asian country was a Spanish colony for some four centuries starting in the 16th century. Luna did the painting, Parisian Life, in 1892, four years before Rizal was executed by Spain for rebelling against its rule and six years before a full-fledged armed revolution against Spain began.

The GSIS has argued that the money had come from its investment funds stemming from a healthy net income, and that it did not eat into funds for members in order to buy the Luna.

Its officials also said the agency wanted to buy the painting rather than see it go into the hands of foreigners, because Parisian Life had been scheduled to be auctioned by Christie’s.

The controversy that accompanied the Luna painting at the auction pushed up its price from an original price of 14 million pesos ($330,000).

Some critics also say that Parisian Life was not even a Luna masterpiece. Luna is best known by Filipinos for Spoliarium, which depicted the struggle of Filipinos for national liberation and which won the gold medal of excellence in the 1884 Madrid salon exhibition.

Spoliarium, once owned by the Spanish government, was returned to the Philippines as a gesture of goodwill and is now at the National Museum.

But regardless of what their views are over the purchase of the Luna painting, many agree that the row has underscored the need to do something about the country’s cultural legacy.