It was previously confiscated by the authorities

A Picasso painting appears on the walls of the house of the new Philippine president's mother

Picasso's painting appears on the wall of the house behind Imelda.

From the source

A painting previously confiscated by the Philippine authorities by the world famous painter, Pablo Picasso, appeared on the walls of the house of the mother of the new Philippine President, Ferdinand "Bong Pong" Marcos Jr., during his visit to her at her home after his victory in the presidential elections in the Philippines last week.

The former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, 92, is best known for her large collection of shoes, some 3,000 pairs, which the world saw when civilians stormed the presidential palace in 1986 and ousted her family from power.

Her late husband, Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., had ruled the country as a dictator since 1965, during which time he abolished free speech, dissolved Congress, and instituted martial law for half his term.

Stealing money

The family also stole an estimated $10 billion from the Filipino people's money, which they used to fund a famous lavish lifestyle that included dozens of mansions, expensive cars, yachts, planes, helicopters and jewelry (worth at least $21 million).

Despite the country plunging into recession, the family also bought millions of dollars worth of artwork, including Picasso's Woman Reclining, which was supposed to have been confiscated by Philippine authorities in 2014.

The family hid their money and possessions from works of art so well that even after decades of trying, getting them back has proven nearly impossible.

In 2018, Imelda Marcos was convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison, but she never served her sentence, and only about $4 billion of the family's fortune was recovered.

confiscation

In 2013, Imelda's former assistant tried to sell four Impressionist paintings and was convicted in New York of criminal tax fraud and conspiracy.

A year later, Philippine authorities confiscated 15 paintings from Marcos' home in San Juan, including a Picasso.

It is not known whether the painting handed over to the authorities in 2014 was a fake or real, or whether the image currently displayed is also so.

"I personally know that what we seized was fake," the former head of the Presidential Commission on Good Governance, the body that carried out the 2014 raid, told the Philippine news agency Rappler last week.

The Marcos family returned to the Philippines in 1991, and Imelda was elected to the House of Representatives in the late 1990s.

As the memory of her late husband's dictatorship waned, she began to flaunt her fortune again - saying things like "there's more money the government didn't even realize there was" and "we own almost everything in the Philippines".

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