Beauty Gonzalez criticized for wearing excavated gold jewelry in GMA Gala 2023

Beauty Gonzalez drew criticism online for the accessories she wore at the recent GMA Gala 2023.

According to Cata Tibayan's report on "24 Oras," Wednesday, cultural critic and independent curator Marian Pastor Roces called out the actress for wearing "grave robber stuff."

"Someone tell this woman that the orifice covers she is paying 'homage' to are grave robber stuff. Because if these were legally excavated, the pieces would belong to the National Museum or the Bangko Sentral," Marian wrote on Facebook.

"Or, if the pieces were excavated decades ago and therefore privately owned by sensible collectors before current restrictions, the question still remains: why death masks as necklace?" she added. "Sure, the owners have been dead for a thousand years. BUT."

During the event, Beauty said that the gold pieces she wore are more or less a thousand years old and her look was "an appreciation for Philippine Ancestral Gold."

The ancestral pieces of jewelry were reworked by local bespoke jeweler Riqueza Fine Jewellery and had already made a previous appearance at the National Museum and Ayala Museum.

"This fashion victim is wearing mouth and eye covers: around 10 of them. Which is to say that the necklace was fashioned from excavations of many individuals. That is an astounding number of desecrated graves!" Marian said of Beauty.

"How on earth is this an homage, exhibiting impunity and crassness? Wearing archaeological gold death pieces, flaunting excess, is odious," she said.

Beauty is married to art curator Norman Crisologo.

Last year, she gave a glimpse of their wide collection of paintings, wood carvings, and antique pieces.

GMA Integrated News has reached out to Beauty for her comment on the issue.

—Carby Basina/MGP, GMA Integrated News