The Missing
Art Movement

“If a picture paints a thousand words, what could these paintings say about the corruption during the Marcos regime?”

The disposable income of the Marcoses from 1965 to 1984, based on their own income tax declarations, was only US$957,487.75 — yet within this same period, they acquired more than $25,000,000 worth of artwork by the world’s masters: Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, and many more.

As the Philippines reeled from natural and economic disasters, money that rightfully belonged to the Filipino people was being channeled to fund a decade-long private art collection. The public was kept in the dark — the media was controlled — but when the EDSA Revolution toppled the regime, receipts and documents were discovered in Malacañang Palace, alongside empty frames on its walls.

As the Marcoses fled Manila, vans were observed hastily leaving Philippine government properties in the United States — including the Olympic Tower apartment on 5th Avenue in New York — loaded with numerous crates. Those crates have never been seen since. The paintings have disappeared.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is tasked to get them back. One by one, some of these paintings are being recovered — some found in Metro Manila, others confiscated as far away as Paris, France. Some are under litigation in the Philippines and New York. Many of the most valuable pieces remain missing.