Jose Rizal's sculpture of Josephine Bracken up for auction on Nov. 30

One of the last sculptural works of Jose Rizal will be auctioned in Makati City on November 30.

Rizal's sculpture of his wife, Josephine Bracken, dubbed as "Josephine Sleeping," will star Leon Gallery's Kingly Treasures Auction 2024.

The starting price for the piece is P7 million.

In an interview with Leon Gallery founder and art director Jaime Ponce de Leon, the sculpture was offered for auction by the descendants of Narcisa Rizal, the sister of the Filipino hero.

"This was given to Narcisa. After Jose Rizal died, he left certain objects to his relatives," said Lisa Nakpil of the Leon Gallery.

The art piece depicts Josephine Bracken with her breast part covered only by her crossed arms and lower half covered by a blanket while sleeping on what appeared like a classical Roman couch.

The sculpture was personally signed by Rizal and it was among the art pieces that was most documented.

"Josephine Sleeping" was featured in the pictorial album on Rizal published by the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission in 1961 and was on the front page of Sunday Times Magazine on June 14,1970.

Photo: Hana Bordey/GMA Integrated News

According to the auction catalog written by Nakpil, the sculpture was made during Rizal's exile in Dapitan after he met Bracken.

Rizal knew the Irish woman through the latter's adoptive father, George Taufer, who had come to Dapital to seek Rizal's help to cure his blindness.

Apart from Rizal's sculpture, the bust sculpture of Andres Bonifacio and the last seal of the Katipunan are among the 157 items that will be up for auction in Leon Gallery.

Ponce de Leon said the auction will be open to all stakeholders and even the government can participate.

"Everybody can come, everybody can take part which is really the essence because if there are no auctions, things will be sold privately. You will not even know [that it is being sold.] People in power wouldn't know. So the good thing about the auction is it democratizes the selling of things," Ponce de Leon told GMA News Online.

The auction is not only for those who will buy the historical and art pieces.

Ponce De Leon said historians, researchers, and the people in the academe could come to see the historical pieces in person.

"They may not necessarily be buyers but they can check out the pieces, they can see the high resolution images, especially the letters because we always sell a lot of letters from Rizal, from Andres Bonifacio. They can see everything. So we see a lot of researchers come to examine documents and these documents can sometimes change the course of our history," Ponce de Leon said.

The auction will start at 2:00 p.m. on November 30 at Eurovilla 1, Rufino Corner Legaspi Streets, Legazpi Village, Makati City.