Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos / Vilma Bautista New York Art Case

In January 2014, Ms. Bautista was sentenced to imprisonment and ordered to pay US$3.8 million in taxes owed from US $28 milion she had received from the sale of a Monet painting.  (Sources:  James C. McKinley, Jr., "Former Marcos Aide Sentenced in Art Sale," New York Time, January 13, 2014 and New York County District Attorney's Office Press Release, "DA Vance: Three individuals Charged in Conspiracy Involving Monet Artworks that Disappeared with the Collapse of the Marcos Regime in the Philippines," November 20, 2012.).  

In November 2013, the Philippines' Presidential Commission on Good Government issued a statement welcoming Ms. Bautista's conviction and stated that the PCGG "will now be working to recover the proceeds and assets which were confiscated from Ms. Bautista and which we assert to be owned by the Republic."  (Source: Philippines Presidential Commission on Good Government, PCGG Statement on the Conviction of Vilma Bautista, November 19, 2013.) 

On November 20, 2012, the District Attorney for New York County, New York, announced the indictment of "VILMA BAUTISTA, 74, CHAIYOT JANSEN NAVALAKSANA (“JANSEN”), 37, and PONGSAK NAVALAKSANA (“PONGSAK”), 40, for illegally conspiring to possess and sell valuable works of art acquired by former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos during her husband’s presidency, keeping the proceeds for themselves, and hiding those proceeds from New York State tax authorities and others. The art included a Claude Monet “Water-Lily” painting, which the defendants sold in September 2010 for $32 million. The indictment charges all three defendants with Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree, and also charges BAUTISTA with Criminal Tax Fraud in the First Degree and Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree. JANSEN is charged with Criminal Tax Fraud in the Fourth Degree and Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree. [ ]   

According to the indictment, BAUTISTA was employed by the Philippine government as a Foreign Service Officer assigned to the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York from the early 1970s through approximately 1986. During that period and for years after, BAUTISTA unofficially acted as the New York-based personal secretary of Imelda Marcos, whose husband, Ferdinand Marcos, now deceased, served as President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. During her husband’s presidency, Imelda Marcos used state assets to acquire a vast collection of artwork and other valuables. Much of the art adorned official Philippine government property in the Philippines and Manhattan. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos fled the Philippines in February 1986 following a popular revolt.

In the period of time immediately before and after the fall of the Marcos regime, a significant amount of artwork and other valuables disappeared from Philippine government property, including from the Philippine Consulate townhouse in Manhattan. Since then, the Philippine government has engaged in a public campaign to recover missing and stolen property acquired by the Marcoses. BAUTISTA is accused of having been aware of and monitoring this campaign, even as she possessed some of the valuable works of art."  (Source:  New York County District Attorney's Office Press Release, "DA Vance:  Three Individuals Charged in Conspiracy Involving Monet Artworks that Disappeared with the Collapse of the Marcos Regime in the Philippines," November 20, 2012.)