Juan Sajid Imao's P500k bronze sculpture in Luneta missing

Published October 21, 2013 4:02pm

(Updated 12:52 p.m., Oct. 22) - A bronze sculpture donated to Rizal Park (Luneta) and worth an estimated P500,000 was discovered over the weekend to have been taken from the park's Kanlungan ng Sining grounds.

According to a report by Tricia Zafra on Balitanghali on Monday, Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) president Fidel Sarmiento was taking pictures of the grounds on Saturday when he noticed the statue was no longer in its usual place in the garden.

The sculpture, a four-foot-high statue by artist Juan Sajid Imao, son of National Artist Abdulmari Imao, was donated to the AAP eight years ago.

Titled "UnmasKing", the sculpture won Imao an honorable mention in the 56th Annual Art Contest by the AAP. The name of the statue was retrieved on Tuesday when the AAP president found a catalog of stored works in its archives.

Made of bronze and cement, the piece weighs an estimated 80 kilos. It would take two people to lift it, the AAP said.

Plants instead of statue

The National Parks and Development Committee (NPDC) also said that the plants which have now taken the statue's place could not have been planted without the removal of the statue.

The theft has been reported to the Manila Police District. A contractor hired to renovate the AAP is cooperating with the investigation but declined to comment on the matter, other than noting that in the last two weeks none of its workers has been doing work in the park.

AAP's section of Luneta is not part of the park security's patrol route, and the park's CCTV cameras are only installed around its perimeter. Despite this, the authorities will inspect the footage to see if the cameras caught any suspicious activity occurring during the time of the incident.

Because of the break-in, NPDC said that the AAP has now formally coordinated with park security to prevent further burglaries, for there are other valuable art pieces in the Kanlungan. The tourist police and Station 5 of the Manila Police District were also notified of the burglary.

For its part, the AAP acknowledged that it did not coordinate with security to monitor the Kanlungan ng Sining because it had trusted that people in the park would not steal from it. This is also the first time that anything like this has happened in the Kanlungan, AAP said.

Sarmiento appealed to the public to help with the investigation, and urged the perpetrators not to sell the statue, or melt it for the bronze.

In a phone interview with GMA News Online Tuesday, Imao's wife, Cielo, said that her husband hopes for the statue to be returned to Kanlungan.

She said the sculptor was naturally saddened by the incident, but wished that, if it surfaces anywhere—even in junk shops—, concerned citizens will report its whereabouts and return the sculpture.

Imao, an award-winning sculptor, has also crafted the giant working sundial at the Bonifacio Global City, named “Kasaysayan Bawat Oras”, and the brass crucifix inside the Church of the Gesu at Ateneo de Manila. One of his sculptures was also made into a trophy in the Sining PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange) 2012 National Art Competition.

The report added that the NPDC, the AAP and the contractor will discuss possible steps they can take to recover the artwork. — Rie Takumi/BM/KG, GMA News

Tags: luneta, arttheft, juansajidimao, artassociationofthephilippines, kanlunganngsining