BIZ BUZZ: Provenance under question

The recent auction of a 19th century painting attributed to one of the greatest Filipino painters of all time—an “old master”—cast some doubts on the provenance publicized by the auctioneer.

The local auction house invoked triple provenance from a señora de buena familia who was said to have acquired the work in 1926 from a well-known French auction house. It was said that the piece had even been exhibited in a renowned Parisian gallery in 1945.

The first owner of the painting was claimed to be one with the same name as the matriarch of a drugstore empire that had been sold to a regional giant. But no less than the grandson of this dowager doubted that this was ever part of granny’s assets. She could not have possibly bought the painting in 1926, when she was 17. Granny was never interested in art and never frequented French auction houses to begin with, it was noted, and she didn’t even leave Spain until 1936 to travel to Manila and marry into the prominent clan.

As to the second part of the publicized provenance, the catalogue cited “extensive due diligence” that had been undertaken to trace the journey of this piece through the original invoice (circa 1926) issued when the painting was purchased from the commissaire-priseur—“auctioneer” in English—Feuardent Frères.

But an art pundit who looked into the matter pointed out that Feuardent Frères was actually a Parisian dealer in ancient coins, gems and antiquities.

“It has a noble past. But, unfortunately, is not recorded to ever deal with paintings,” this pundit said.

Going over the catalogues of auction sales from the 19th to the 20th centuries, our source noted that Feuardent Frères was never listed as commissaire-priseur in any of these sales and was only always identified as an “expert.”

None of the copious records of sales participated in by Feuardent Frères as expert included paintings—and none by this old master.

Also, our art pundit could not find any announcement of an auction sale with Feuardent Frères as expert or commissaire-priseur on the date of the letter invoice.

As to the touted 1945 exhibit in Paris, our pundit checked the actual catalogue of this very exhibit—one that featured abstract artists, such as Pablo Picasso.

“In fact, the exhibit title explicitly covers the period from 1911 to 1918 exclusively. The inclusion of a non-French work, not in the cubist manner, and dated from 1900 would have been most remarkable,” the pundit said. The old local master was not mentioned or even listed in the catalogue.

Art aficionados rely on their auctioneers to vet each and every artwork offered to the market. It’s their responsibility to ensure that any provenance presented to the public would be beyond reproach. The buyers, too, must conduct their own due diligence and demand foolproof documentation.

“Private documents, such as receipts and invoices, should be supported by public third-party documents such as newspaper accounts, auction journals, and printed posters and catalogues. Without these, the paper trail does no good at putting an end to naysayers’ gossip but only raise far more questions than they give answers,” our pundit said.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Plum banking awards

Which international bank in the Philippines got the highest rank in the year’s highly anticipated Asiamoney awards, which are based on a survey conducted by the financial publication among fund managers, buy-side analysts, bankers and ratings agencies?

This year’s winner is UBS, dislodging Citi which had won for at least three consecutive years.

Under the leadership of veteran Lauro Baja, current UBS head of global capital markets for Asia-Pacific, Asiamoney noted that UBS “has maintained leads in mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and debt capital markets the old-fashioned way: winning repeat business year after year, while adding new clients to an increasingly dominant franchise.” Since setting up shop in the Philippines in 2004, UBS has completed more than 150 transactions with a total value exceeding $40 billion.

BDO Capital & Investment Corp., meanwhile, bagged the “best corporate and investment bank” title. Led by its president, Eduardo Francisco, BDO Capital has been described by Asiamoney as the “go-to institution for the Philippines’ biggest conglomerates.”

Since 2000, BDO Capital has participated in at least $180.5 billion worth of equity and debt issues.

RCBC won the “best digital bank” award for the second straight year. Under the leadership of chief executive officer Eugene Acevedo, Asiamoney noted that RCBC had disbursed more than $293 million in financial aid mainly from the government, benefiting roughly 4.1 million low-income families, or nearly 21 million individuals in 72 of the nation’s provinces, as of May 2021. Cash was handed out through RCBC partner rural banks, cooperatives, microfinance institutions, retail stores and even pawnshops.

Aboitiz-led Union Bank, under the leadership of CEO Edwin Bautista, won the “best SME (small and medium enterprise) award for the second straight year. Asiamoney cited the launch of a new SME business banking app that offered a broad range of digital options and functionalities to SMEs.

Last but not the least, the Ayalas’ banking arm, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), led by its new president, Jose Teodoro “TG” Limcaoco, won the “best bank for CSR” (corporate social responsibility). Asiamoney noted that the bank’s work, through its social development arm BPI Foundation, was “turning heads in the country.” Under the leadership of executive director Owen Cammayo, BPI Foundation reached more than 7.3 million communities in 2020, doing so with the help of 8,275 employee volunteers.

“Long before COVID-19 hit, BPI Foundation played a part in trying to increase financial inclusiveness. For 20 years now, so have a succession of Philippine governments. But political gridlock has left efforts to increase financial literacy to nongovernment organizations and the private sector,” Asiamoney said.

“All along, BPI Foundation had been there to fill a number of voids, not just with direct handouts that have little long-term impact but also through training programs that form a kind of intellectual safety net. For example, it has long worked with the Philippine department of education to improve the nation’s collective financial soft power.”

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla INQ