The national Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal) confirmed The day which has only five works that were part of the Institute for the Institute for the Protection of Banking Savings (IPAB) of almost 2,000 pieces from the banking institutions that were declared bankrupt and were benefited by the bank Fund for Savings Protection (Fobaproa) of Ernesto Zedillo in 1994.
These are paintings that were going to be auctioned but after long bureaucratic efforts made by the National Council for Culture and Arts (Conaculta), then by Rafael Tovar and Teresa, were donated to the federal government by the banks themselves, being declared national artistic monuments.
Women’s Portrait/Eve Mayers (1934), by David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Downstream (1985), by Cuban Tomás Sánchez, are in the Museum of Modern Art (MAM); Reviele medallion (1757-1816), by Manuel Tolsá, and GueLatao view, (1889) by José María Velasco, are under the protection of the National Museum of Art (Munal), while Vallenfreda landscape (no date) is in bailment at the José María Velasco Landscape Museum in Toluca, State of Mexico.
According to a 2002 report from the IPAB, the oil of Siqueiros, of which there are few images on the Internet, was part of Banpaís’ heritage (owned by Ángel Isidoro Rodríguez The divine). In 1999, the piece was transferred to the Munal through a deposit contract, for its guard and custody, and because the phobaproa did not have the necessary and adequate facilities, as well as qualified personnel to save, conserve and monitor works with artistic and commercial value of relevance. This would also allow the pieces to be exhibited to the general public.
In order to rescue the cultural heritage of the Nation, the Conacult National, whether national or individuals.
The paintings of José María Velasco belonged to Banco Unión (by Carlos Cabal Peniche). It was also until 2001 that the donation was completed, after it was reviewed and confirmed that since 1943 the artistic work of this author was declared an artistic monument by presidential decree.
Oils and graphic work of Manuel Felguérez, Juan Soriano, John Frederick Herring, Luis Nishizawa and Vicente Rojo did not run the same fate, among others, which were auctioned in those years in order for resources to reduce the cost associated with saving support programs, the IPAB explained.
In August 2000, a auction raised 4 million 7 thousand pesos, especially for the percentage of pieces placed: 305 works were sold 77 percent, when the usual auction figure is 50 percent.
Of that sale, it transcended, the López Morton gallery, responsible for the bid, took at least 600 thousand pesos in commission, although there was a stellar work: Mexico from the Hacienda de los Morales, of the American Conrad Wise Chapman (1840-1910), a piece that by itself generated income for a million 700 thousand pesos, and today is part of the Carlos Slim Foundation.
The most coveted
In an interview with this newspaper in May 2000, the then director of the Inbal, Gerardo Estrada, explained: We negotiate so that the work that is considered important is in custody of the museums. We are not interested in the graphic work, but the original painting, and said that other heritage pieces could be exchanged commercially, but they are limited to leave the country (The day, 31/5/2000).
For the collectors it was a disappointment that the Velasco tables were removed from auctions, since they were waiting since 1991, when a picture of that author was sold in New York in 2 million 420 thousand dollars, when its departure price was 800 thousand dollars.
Shortly after, the picture MEXICO VALLEY FROM THE CERRO DE TENAYO It appeared as part of the Velasco Museum in Toluca. A corridor would have bought it on behalf of a private collector and he gave it in bailment to the enclosure.
According to IPAB data, a Rufino Tamayo diptych was auctioned Adam and Eve; Mexico in the rain, mixed work on fabric Vicente Rojo, and the mixography of Fernando de Szyszlo, house 8 interior, Belonging, respectively, to Banca Cremi, Banpaís and Banca Unión.
An oil on Vicente Gandía, oils of Luis Filcer (Cerro de la Estrella y Cozumel at dusk), as well as the mixed technique The world spins, by Javier Arévalo, and the sculpture Horse head, by Pedro Cervantes.
There were four Siqueiros (graphic work) that were made available to the market: a colorless color of the series Mourlot, Another coal titled Latin America, one more coal known as The Guardian of La Paz and another color lithography without title. For each of these, 15 thousand dollars were paid at the time.
Although the IPAB collection had an estimated cost close to one million dollars, according to experts, as reported yesterday The day, He only raised about 11 million pesos, with several inconsistencies in the process in terms of the number of works, as well as the determination of pieces of great artistic value.
According to the Institute, the process was as follows: in April 1997, the first purification began that consisted of separating the most important works that, for their artistic value, are considered exceptional, and, secondly, the decorative works with artistic value.
A commission, among which were Luis Ortiz Macedo and Mariana Pérez Amor, selected the 105 works that were originally considered artistic according to information published by this newspaper in 1999.
The paintings were acquired by the bankers in the salinist boom as decoration of their offices. Deputies, then of the opposition, in charge of investigating the fobaproa, they said that in Banco Anáhuac, Juan Antonio Zepeda accepted the purchase of paintings in large quantities, with values between 5 thousand and 25 thousand dollars. They wanted to convert the buildings of the banks into palaces similar to those of New York. Thus, in the stock house of stock bran strategy, nine lithographs were found, for a value of 15 thousand dollars each, of the inspiration of Siqueiros. (The bankers) took the bank’s resources to buy covered works of art, and was a general practice to feel part of the plutocracy. The fate of the vast majority of works is not known exactly (The day, 12/11/99).
When the fobaproa happened, the legislators denounced, in Banpaís an important amount was recovered, although only medium value paintings passed. The works were shown, they finished off, because they had controlled the comptrollers.
