Christie's appraises Marcos jewels

[emad]

John Aglionby, south-east Asia correspondent
Friday September 16, 2005
The Guardian


First it was her shoe collection that elevated Imelda Marcos to global infamy. Now it is the multi-million pound jewels the former Philippine first lady allegedly accumulated illegally during her husband's 20-year dictatorship that are putting her on a similar pedestal.

The Philippine government yesterday permitted two experts from the auction house Christie's to inspect 400 items from three of Ms Marcos's collections in order to prepare a bid to sell the jewellery later this year.

They are expected to take at least two days to appraise the pieces, which include a diamond-encrusted bracelet, earrings and brooch set thought to be worth at least £800,000, a ruby pendant, three diamond-studded tiaras and some Swiss watches, according to Ricardo Abcede, a member of the government commission responsible for recouping the estimated £6bn fortune the Marcoses pillaged while in power. Local media estimate the jewellery could fetch between £6m and £11m.
One collection was taken from Ms Marcos in the US after she and her husband Ferdinand fled Manila in the face of a revolt in 1986, another was seized at the presidential palace after the couple fled, and a third was confiscated from a Greek man at Manila airport.

Ms Marcos, who is already facing scores of suits related to her actions while first lady, is not giving up the gems meekly.

She filed a petition in a Manila court yesterday to halt the sale of the 60 pieces captured from the Greek, Demetriou Roumeliotes.

These include a 37.5-carat diamond and are thought to be the most valuable of the collections. The complaint alleged they were "stolen and came into the possession of a certain Demetriou Roumeliotes, who attempted to smuggle them out of the country".

She claims she had 34 suitcases of jewellery but the government inventory includes only 27 so the rest must have been stolen.

"These should not be sold because they are not from stolen money," she said at the court, adding that some were heirloom pieces with sentimental value. "These are all mine. Please stop this. This is too much repression."

Mr Abcede, who showed the gems to the media yesterday in an attempt to stimulate interest in the sale, was confident Ms Marcos's petition would be thrown out. "We hope we could auction off these collections by November in Geneva," he said. "We need the money to fund our land reform programme."

Sotheby's and Bonhams are also expected to inspect the jewels and bid to stage the sale.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1571364,00.html

[papau]

1. This could have been a MATCON post - thanks for the laugh! :-)

:-)