MANILA, Philippines – A British billionaire paid $10 million to victims of the Marcos regime to keep hold of a Monet painting that once belonged to former First Lady Imelda Marcos and which he bought for $43 million from her personal secretary “in good faith”, according to a report on The Telegraph that was posted on its website Friday.
Hedge fund manager Alan Howard made the payment to fend off any potential legal claim over its ownership, the report said.
Howard, the report said, paid $43 million for the painting, Japanese Footbridge over the Water-Lily Pond, in 2010 after he was assured by the seller, Vilma Bautista, an aide of Mrs. Marcos, that it was safe to buy.
Bautista has since been charged in Manhattan with conspiracy and tax fraud over the September 2010 sale of the Monet, which she alleged to have kept for the last 20 years.
Some 10,000 individuals, who have been abused by the late President Ferdinand Marcos under his 20-year rule, have filed class action suits to reclaim the Marcos assets in the US, including the painting.
Howard, founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management, is planning to take legal action against Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, the London gallery and dealership that sold the painting, the report said.
The gallery is said to have made about $7.5 million on the sale of the painting, with about $30 million going to Bautista, according to the report.
Marcos was ousted in a popular revolt in 1986 and fled to Hawaii with his family where he stayed until his death from Lupus in 1989.
Mrs. Marcos, her son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Jr. and Imee have since found their way back into the political arena. The former first lady is now Ilocos Norte representative, the young Ferdinand is senator while sister Imee is governor of Ilocos Norte. The Ilocos region is a known bailiwick of the Marcoses. Lynette Ordoñez-Luna
source: newsinfo.inquirer.net
