Imelda Bought LACMA’s Missing Goya
It turns out that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), concerned about the painting’s authenticity, sold Goya’s “Portrait of the Marquesa of Santa Cruz” in 1978. The then-First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, acquired the canvas for her personal aggrandizement — i.e. “the benefit of her nation.” The Philippine government finally took possession of it last year. Meanwhile, don’t you just love the details in the photo in addition to the Goya: the throne, the chihuahua, the bullet hole in the mirror?
