This Exhibition Exposes The True Worth Of The Jewelry Collection Of A Corrupt First Lady Of The Philippines And It’s Infuriating
The crisis of the global pandemic revealed deep-rooted problems that have long existed in our world—economic inequality. It helped to affirm the great dissonance between the labeling of certain workers as “heroes” and their dismal wages. More than ever before, people are concerned with inequality all over the world, and this exhibition is one of the most innovative ways to expose this long-lasting social injustice.
One Twitter user recently went to an art exhibition with 3D-printed replicas of Imelda Marcos’ jewelry. Imelda Romualdez Marcos is a former First Lady of the Philippines. During their 21 years of tenure, she and her husband are believed to have illegally acquired a multi-billion US dollar fortune, most of which still remains unrecovered.
As Filipino Esquire Magazine puts it, “the stories of Imelda Marcos’ extravagance and corruption are well-documented.” No one knows exactly how much her extravagance cost taxpayers, but this art exhibition helps to put some numbers in perspective.
The viral Twitter thread offered a peek inside Imelda Marcos’ jewelry collection and revealed the true worth of each piece. The 3D-printed replicas help us imagine the impact that the huge sums of money could have had on someone else’s life. As one person on social media has said, “See, I wouldn’t mind people spending that kind of money on useless items if everyone else could still live comfortably.”
More info: Twitter | Hawaii State Art Museum
One Twitter user shared photos from a brilliant exhibition of 3D-printed replicas of Imelda Marcos’ jewelry
Image credits: hugdrugs
The outstanding exhibition was featured at the Hawai‘i State Art Museum. For those who would like to visit it, it is located in downtown Honolulu. The coolest thing about the place is that museum admission is always free! “This includes all museum exhibits, events, and activities,” reads the description of the Hawai‘i State Art Museum. It is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Below each piece, the authors have written what could have been done with the money that the jewelry is worth
Image credits: hugdrugs
The authors of the exhibition—Pio Abad and Frances Wadsworth Jones—write in the description: “This collaborative work consists of twenty-four 3D-printed reconstructions of the jewelry collection confiscated from the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda when they went into exile in Hawaii in 1986. This collection was later referred to in court documents as the Hawaii Collection. Shortly after the seizure the Hawaii Collection was returned to the Philippines and turned over to the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the agency tasked with the sequestering and liquidation of the Marcos’s ill-gotten assets. After more than three decades of legal challenges from the Marcos family the Philippine government finally planned to sell the jewels at Christie’s as part of efforts to reclaim some of the Marcos’s illegally acquired wealth, but the nation’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, cancelled the auction after taking office in 2016. The jewelry has not been seen since.”
Abad explains the title of the work: “Jane Ryan and William Saunders were the false identities used by Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos to register their first Swiss bank account at Credit Suisse Zurich in March 1968, which enabled them to transform a huge proportion of the Philippine treasury into private wealth under the guidance of the Western banking system.”
Pio Abad was born in Manila, Philippines and currently lives and works in London, England. He studied at the University of the Philippines before receiving a BA from Glasgow School of Art and a MA from the Royal Academy Schools, London. He works in a wide range of media, often focusing on the social and political significance and meaning objects.
Frances Wadsworth Jones was born in London, where she is currently a jewelry designer, maker, and educator. She received an MA from the Royal College of Art, London. Her work is “playfully conceptual and quietly provocative.”
“The full immunization of 20,000 children plus 17,600 pneumococcal vaccines to senior citizens and infants”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“1,726 agrarian reform beneficiaries by building farming capacities, providing access to services and developing enterprises”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“Four year tuition for 2,000 college students in a Philippine state university”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“Electricity to approximately 2,252 households in off-grid areas”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“The average annual income of 15 Filipinos”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“The treatment of 12,052 cases of tuberculosis until their full recovery”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“Support for 310 indigenous family beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer program, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“15% of the total budget of the construction of Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit Line 2”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“Housing to 1,200 homeless beneficiaries”
Image credits: hugdrugs
“52,631 textbooks for Grades 11 and 12”
Image credits: hugdrugs
Here’s what people said
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Image credits: MissLowvv
Image credits: __coastinbreezy
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This dictator and thief together with his wife were flown out of the Philippines on US Air Force C-130 planes in February 1986. They went into exile in Hawaii. The kind of "democratic" regime too often propped up and helped by the US.
Another gift from the Reagan administration.
Load More Replies...
This is where checks and balances are a necessary thing, to stop corrupt politicians from pilfering the Treasury.
This is really deep, so many people are suffering due to government corruption. What I hate most is when these regimes are over thrown other countries give these criminals asylum instead of sending them back to face justice.
Reminds me of a museum I visited in Lyon. It was the former HQ for the Gestapo in WWII. It was just a series of plaques telling you about the people arrested. The vast majority were killed in the final 3 days of the war. The only artifacts in the museum were the medieval torture devices in the basement belonging to Klaus Barbie, who was in charge. Over 1 million French men, women and children were executed(not in battle) by the Nazis, particularly in Lyon, which was 'the capital of La Resistence'. It's grim but stands out in my mind as being something I didn't regret learning about.
It must be the same with all despots. I saw an exhibition of some of Czar Alexander's treasures and thought he could have sold half this stuff, lifted his subjects out of starvation, and lived. And then they're always so shocked when they get overthrown.
"""the Philippine government finally planned to sell the jewels at Christie’s as part of efforts to reclaim some of the Marcos’s illegally acquired wealth, but the nation’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, cancelled the auction after taking office in 2016. The jewelry has not been seen since.""" It's hard to tell what happened here, but my best guess is that the president was preventing money from getting into the government and instead decided to just destroy it, since he's been doing that with millions of dollars worth of cars because making a spectacle is more important than funding his nation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVpL33NFdKQ
I really wonder if Duterte really has destroyed these jewelry. It's more likely that it ended up in his personal collection.
Load More Replies...
What an eye opening exhibit. A unique way of showing the indulgence of wealth, and what it could be better spent on.
I compare this with wages, benefits and INSIDER TRADING common in our own Congress, where politicians earn $174,000 for part-time work, include platinum health-care benefits, allowances for office and travel, daily multi-hour phone calling to raise funds, and retirement benefits that frequently include full salary and benefits for life, even while retirees are working as lobbyists for companies they benefited while in office. Oh yean, many congressmembers retire multimillionaires after earning less than $2 Million in wages while in office. Congress stinks of corruption.
I wonder if anyone will sit down and tally the indirect benefits received by the current administrations (US not Philippine) appointees and their associates.
Is it any surprise the Trump is a big fan of Rodrigo Duterte, the president who cancelled the auction (thereby denying the people of the Philippines the money it would have raised)? Duterte's "War on Drugs" has caused the *extra-judicial deaths of over 27,000 Filipinos. *killed without being tried in a court of law
I may be the most wrong person to write something about Imelda Marcos but from everything I know about her and her ultra-pumped up-fake public image, is that she has never been too smart to play the part of the "corrupt first lady". She has always been a mere trophy wife, with high demands nonetheless, but still a trophy wife. While her husband was playing the big bad dictator, all she cared and cherished for was to immerse herself in countless, limitless shopping sprees (with the money intended for the country, of course). A dumb doll with a (bad) taste for pricey fashion. A boor with a load of cash. All she ever been was a beauty queen, that fits instantly in every bad stereotype. So was natural to be some kind of alpha gold-digger. There wasn't love at all between the Marcoses (he cheated on her on day 1), but what better cure to a loveless marriage than 3000 pairs of designer shoes and countless jewels? She was just a Kardashian before (sadly) the Kardashians entered the limelight.
the Marcoses are already filthy rich before they came to power. Also there are hidden truths about them that were not really revealed on the books. All they want y'all to believe is this family is corrupt and unjust where during Ferdinand Marcos' reign, Philippines is one of the most prosperous country in south east asia.
I remember reading about Imelda Marcos and I can't remember a more selfish & uncaring person.
I consider myself to be a capitalist (but as a millennial would say) with a twist. Born and raised in one of the richest countries in the world i feel privileged every day. Although there is a monthly challenge to make ends meet, I can say that i am blessed. With three young children I am forced to think about mine and their future. Next to that it is unbelievable that the global wealth is unevenly spread, that they were born in our family gives them a more easy life then someone who was born 2,500KM away. I can choose every day: Will I share that what i have worked hard for (even burned out for) with the less fortunate, or not. I HAVE this opportunity to decide, they don't. On the other hand: I know that what I am building for myself and my kids might result in well educated people who can add to the world. For now: I save a little amount every month. Who knows where it might lead to. I promise: It's not jewelry.
I mean... that's the normal collection of a Latin-American politician.
Let's do the same with the British Crown's real estate holdings and jewels and all the assets belonging to the 1% in the US
This dictator and thief together with his wife were flown out of the Philippines on US Air Force C-130 planes in February 1986. They went into exile in Hawaii. The kind of "democratic" regime too often propped up and helped by the US.
Another gift from the Reagan administration.
Load More Replies... This is where checks and balances are a necessary thing, to stop corrupt politicians from pilfering the Treasury.
This is really deep, so many people are suffering due to government corruption. What I hate most is when these regimes are over thrown other countries give these criminals asylum instead of sending them back to face justice.
Reminds me of a museum I visited in Lyon. It was the former HQ for the Gestapo in WWII. It was just a series of plaques telling you about the people arrested. The vast majority were killed in the final 3 days of the war. The only artifacts in the museum were the medieval torture devices in the basement belonging to Klaus Barbie, who was in charge. Over 1 million French men, women and children were executed(not in battle) by the Nazis, particularly in Lyon, which was 'the capital of La Resistence'. It's grim but stands out in my mind as being something I didn't regret learning about.
It must be the same with all despots. I saw an exhibition of some of Czar Alexander's treasures and thought he could have sold half this stuff, lifted his subjects out of starvation, and lived. And then they're always so shocked when they get overthrown.
"""the Philippine government finally planned to sell the jewels at Christie’s as part of efforts to reclaim some of the Marcos’s illegally acquired wealth, but the nation’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, cancelled the auction after taking office in 2016. The jewelry has not been seen since.""" It's hard to tell what happened here, but my best guess is that the president was preventing money from getting into the government and instead decided to just destroy it, since he's been doing that with millions of dollars worth of cars because making a spectacle is more important than funding his nation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVpL33NFdKQ
I really wonder if Duterte really has destroyed these jewelry. It's more likely that it ended up in his personal collection.
Load More Replies... What an eye opening exhibit. A unique way of showing the indulgence of wealth, and what it could be better spent on.
I compare this with wages, benefits and INSIDER TRADING common in our own Congress, where politicians earn $174,000 for part-time work, include platinum health-care benefits, allowances for office and travel, daily multi-hour phone calling to raise funds, and retirement benefits that frequently include full salary and benefits for life, even while retirees are working as lobbyists for companies they benefited while in office. Oh yean, many congressmembers retire multimillionaires after earning less than $2 Million in wages while in office. Congress stinks of corruption.
I wonder if anyone will sit down and tally the indirect benefits received by the current administrations (US not Philippine) appointees and their associates.
Is it any surprise the Trump is a big fan of Rodrigo Duterte, the president who cancelled the auction (thereby denying the people of the Philippines the money it would have raised)? Duterte's "War on Drugs" has caused the *extra-judicial deaths of over 27,000 Filipinos. *killed without being tried in a court of law
I may be the most wrong person to write something about Imelda Marcos but from everything I know about her and her ultra-pumped up-fake public image, is that she has never been too smart to play the part of the "corrupt first lady". She has always been a mere trophy wife, with high demands nonetheless, but still a trophy wife. While her husband was playing the big bad dictator, all she cared and cherished for was to immerse herself in countless, limitless shopping sprees (with the money intended for the country, of course). A dumb doll with a (bad) taste for pricey fashion. A boor with a load of cash. All she ever been was a beauty queen, that fits instantly in every bad stereotype. So was natural to be some kind of alpha gold-digger. There wasn't love at all between the Marcoses (he cheated on her on day 1), but what better cure to a loveless marriage than 3000 pairs of designer shoes and countless jewels? She was just a Kardashian before (sadly) the Kardashians entered the limelight.
the Marcoses are already filthy rich before they came to power. Also there are hidden truths about them that were not really revealed on the books. All they want y'all to believe is this family is corrupt and unjust where during Ferdinand Marcos' reign, Philippines is one of the most prosperous country in south east asia.
I remember reading about Imelda Marcos and I can't remember a more selfish & uncaring person.
I consider myself to be a capitalist (but as a millennial would say) with a twist. Born and raised in one of the richest countries in the world i feel privileged every day. Although there is a monthly challenge to make ends meet, I can say that i am blessed. With three young children I am forced to think about mine and their future. Next to that it is unbelievable that the global wealth is unevenly spread, that they were born in our family gives them a more easy life then someone who was born 2,500KM away. I can choose every day: Will I share that what i have worked hard for (even burned out for) with the less fortunate, or not. I HAVE this opportunity to decide, they don't. On the other hand: I know that what I am building for myself and my kids might result in well educated people who can add to the world. For now: I save a little amount every month. Who knows where it might lead to. I promise: It's not jewelry.
I mean... that's the normal collection of a Latin-American politician.
Let's do the same with the British Crown's real estate holdings and jewels and all the assets belonging to the 1% in the US
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