Leon’s Kingly Treasures Auction 2017 is a historic sale like no other. National, albeit priceless treasures have been procured for this highly-anticipated and momentous auction which will be hosted and managed by León Gallery.

In stupendous condition are the famed four love letters, signed and dated, by the Philippines’ National Hero Dr. José P. Rizal. This is a coup for León Gallery and is an incredible first in Philippine history – or any for that matter – that a letter by the great Rizal will be sold in a public auction.

The Rizal theme doesn’t end with his enthralling penmanship and poignant sentiments. The auction house was also able to acquire a portrait of the apple of Rizal’s eye, the heiress Nelly Bousted, by Felix Hidalgo. A riveting morsel of trivia is that Rizal apparently almost came to blows with Antonio Luna over the heart of the beguiling part-Filipino Boustead.

In addition to these five covetable collectors’ items of Leon’s Kingly Treasures Auction 2017 are the Maximo Viola-Isabelo Tampinco Settee and the Ah-Tay Bed of Don Lucio Lacson (whose family oral history suggests that Rizal may have slept on this magnificent piece during his visit to Iloilo).

High-profile highlights of this upcoming auction that must be mentioned are two acclaimed works by Vicente Manansala: The first is the 1962 ‘Candle Vendors’ and the second is the 1980 ‘Market Scene,’ the largest Manansala painting to be auctioned in the last decade. Then there’s the cover piece, Fernando Zóbel’s ‘Acinipo’ (lifted from the Latin phrase “among the vinyards”) of his Serie Negra.

There are also two remarkable oil works by Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco while the contemporary segment will be well represented by the early works of Elmer Borlongan, Jose John Santos III, Mark Justiniani, and Rodel Tapaya.

See them all here: