Behind the Curse of Juan Luna's "Portrait of a Lady"

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BOOKS & ART 

Behind the Curse of Juan Luna's "Portrait of a Lady"

The painting, an undated work in oil once entitled Paz Pardo de Tavera but which now goes by the ID Portrait of a Lady, is said to carry a powerful spell. Those who have come to own it over the years, it is believed, have met terrible misfortunes, from unexplained sickness to bad business to downright death. “Tsismis says its first owner, Manuel Garcia, was forced to sell it because his business had gone bad,” wrote the historian Ambeth Ocampo in his book Looking Back. “Betty Bantug Benitez bought it and met a tragic road accident in Tagaytay. The portrait then passed through the collection of Tony Nazareno, who also suffered bad luck and sudden illness, so he sold it to Imee Marcos Manotoc, who suffered a miscarriage. In the Luna-Hidalgo exhibition catalogue published by the Metropolitan Museum, the provenance given is not Imee Marcos, but Imelda Marcos, whose fate in 1986 we are all familiar with. She donated the painting to the National Museum.”