In the culture of collecting art, the concept of provenance carries the weight of changing guardianship and says something of not just the art but also the taste, curation, and connoisseurship of collectors. Leon Gallery’s The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2025, set for the weekend of June 7, 2025, brings together an important collection of pieces—from modernist masterpieces and striking depictions to personal artifacts of National Heroes. 

Important modernist pieces

Among the 166 lots, an egg tempera painting by Anita Magsaysay-Ho is the leading auction highlight. “This auction for Leon Gallery’s The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2025 is perhaps one of the most important we’ve ever had,” says auction house founder Jaime Ponce de Leon. He describes the rare Anita Magsaysay-Ho painting as “coveted by every single collector and every collector who wants the best. This is an extreme gem.”

The work, “Water Carriers,” is one of fewer than 20 to exist in the medium of egg tempera. It was recently exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila in “Material Inspirations,” showing strong women carrying water. The artist shows her mastery by depicting multiple depths, from the trees in the background to a man sitting low in the foreground.

This was the third egg tempera Magsaysay-Ho created as a student at Cranbrook Academy of Art. In the 15 years of Leon Gallery’s existence, Ponce de Leon shares they have only sold three temperas of this caliber.

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Using egg tempera is not an easy technique. “It caused shockwaves among collectors who I have whispered about this egg tempera to be sold,” says Ponce de Leon. There are existing notes from the artist that say the painting was made with five values for each color using egg, water, and stirring the mix with black or blue, then painted with a variety of brushes from fine sable brushes to razor blades and sandpaper. 

HR Ocampo, another trailblazer of Modern art in the Philippines, is represented by “Dreams,” a rare painting of his signature staccato that uses even sharper contrasts through delineation. Created in the 1960s, it reflects a time when Ocampo was influenced by the light and shadow of Richard Avedon’s photographs as well as Andy Warhol’s psychedelic pop art.

Meanwhile, another work by Ocampo, “Miners,” reflects his proletarian advocacies, possibly inspired by the Paracale mine disaster in 1952, which took the lives of 55 miners. The sinuous forms emphasize their humanity, while their facelessness brings attention to the dehumanizing practices miners are subjected to.

Acquired directly from the artist’s family, a Vicente Manansala piece listed as “property of a distinguished lady” starts at P16 million. The painting “From the Market” is a transparent cubist rendition that depicts Manansala himself as a sabungero. Manansala never had a solo exhibition because he would sell his paintings right after finishing them and then proceed to attend cockfighting. The painting shows much self-awareness and also depicts his wife, the love of his life, Hilda Diaz, in the market scene, turned away from the other women in the market, perhaps suspiciously.

Ang Kiukok also has two striking Passion of the Christ crucifixions, both painted in the 1970s. One is a tempera on paper artwork that depicts crowns of thorns undulating across the whole body of Christ in abstract expressionism, while the other uses softer, intentionally blurred forms.

A vibrant work by Mauro Malang, “Family Vendors,” exemplifies his overlapping planes, forms, and brightly colored palettes in an oil on canvas piece.

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Stunning personal collections

Throughout the lots on The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2025 block are works from respected personal collections.

One such piece being auctioned is a Fernando Amorsolo painting from the collection of Don Enrique Zobel, inherited from his father Don Jacobo. It provides documentation of World War II and the burning of Intramuros in 1942.

Adding to its provenance, it was leased to the National Museum in 2015 for a decade. Don Enrique’s father Jacobo sponsored Amorsolo’s scholarship to the Real Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, after the painter designed the iconic Ginebra San Miguel logo of the Archangel Michael.

“To have Zobels in an auction is quite rare,” says Ponce de Leon, noting that it’s especially relevant right now with the Zobel exhibition in Singapore.

“The Burning of Manila” is a grand 40 x 60 inch painting, and depicts New Year’s Day in 1942 as parts of the towers of the Jesuit San Ignacio Church, the Manila Cathedral Dome, the Aduana Building, and the Santo Domingo Church were reduced to rubble after the Japanese bombings. 

People on the riverbank move in a frenzy close to the center of the frame. While depicting a distressing event, the flames are rendered in Amorsolo’s magnificent use of color and impasto, with the fires seeping into the sunset.

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The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2025 also features pieces from the Hayden Kho and Vicki Belo collection, including another Magsaysay-Ho painting from her late period, “Women Gleaning.” Created in the 2000s, it features softer compositions of women at work in the farmlands using more pastel colors.

The couple is also auctioning an impressive Fernando Zobel painting, “Variante Sobre Un Tema de Cassatt,” which features a work from his “Diálogos” series. These reference conversations with the work of other artists, specifically in this case, Mary Cassatt, a significant female artist in the 19th century who contributed to impressionism with her portrayals of women and children.

Among the many artworks from Kho and Belo’s collection is a 2013 “Baroque Japonisme” painting by Andres Barrioquinto reinterpreting ukiyo-e, paper nudes by Cesar Legaspi and Vicente Manansala, as well as a painting of a woman by Cory Aquino.

Beyond the Belos, there is a piece from the collection of Don Eugenio “Geny” Lopez, one of the founders of ABS-CBN: a striking abstracted work by Vicente Manansala, “Kuaresma,” part of the artist’s “Whirr” series that depicts birds in various stages of flight.

One of the most respected collectors in the Philippines is Don J. Antonio Araneta, a distinguished lawyer and a part of the first generation of art collectors in the country. “There is clearly provenance to have these pieces,” remarks Ponce de Leon.

From Araneta’s collection are charming oil on canvas provincial scenes by Ramon Martinez, as well as a large-scale “Search Mindscape” by Justin Nuyda and a nude pastel on paper sketch by Manansala. Perhaps most beautiful is Carlos “Botong” Francisco’s watercolor study of a couple making sinigang.

 

Historical pieces

Besides modernist and contemporary artwork, the auction includes notable pieces that carry historical weight. Among these is Jose Rizal’s personal edition of the primary written source of Spanish colonization, Antonio de Morga’s “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas” (1609), which he discovered while researching at the British Library. It is filled with the National Hero’s footnotes, with observations on colonial biases and other details.

Ambeth Ocampo, author of 35 books and over 3,500 essays and probably the most well-known historian in the Philippines, contributes treasure troves from what he calls his “cabinet of curiosities.” Among his collection is a silver quill of Emilio Jacinto, which the historian discovered was a school prize for the Katipunero’s poetry.

Also included is an official edition from 1899 of the Malolos Constitution. The foundational document is in excellent condition despite the fragile paper, showing how it modeled the Philippine constitution after those in Europe.

In Ocampo’s cabinet of curiosities is ephemera from Juan Luna, such as a personal bank document from Hong Kong and a silver belt of fine chainmail engraved with leaves. Ocampo also offers up ephemera of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, painter Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, and more treasures from Jose Rizal.

For book collectors, there is a trove of items, from a 19th-century Kapampangan-Spanish dictionary to the first Filipino botanical study by T.H. Pardo de Tavera.

Juan Luna’s “Claro de Luna en la Laguna de Venecia” is another notable piece in the auction.

A pair of granary guardians or traditional Cordilleran bululs from the 19th century—a sitting male and female in narra wood with heavy encrustation that adds to their character—comes from the collection of Floy Quintos.

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There are also more contemporary artworks, including Arturo Luz’s “Nikko Revisited.” The oil on burlap work by the painter, designer, printmaker, and sculptor measures over 6.5 feet tall in striking blood red with bits of white, referencing Nikko, the snowy place in Japan.

Another striking monochrome Luz painting is his self-portrait from the 1960s, in his traditional geometric style but now figurative. Given to his former fiancée Natividad Valentin after the couple split, Valentin naturally hid the painting away in her basement. It was never displayed until exhibited in the “First Light” exhibition in Ayala Museum curated by Ambeth Ocampo in 2017.

For lovers of wine, there is a collection of Château Mouton Rothschild wines from 1970 to 2016, highlighting Bordeaux’s best first growths, each with unique label artwork per year.

“This collection featured in Leon Gallery’s The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2025 is replete with everything you can look for especially when assembling a collection—provenance, quality, rarity, and everything else. We always have something for everyone in every sale. It is really a compilation of exceptional pieces,” concludes de Leon.

Leon Gallery’s The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2025 will be happening on June 7, 2025, 2 p.m. at Eurovilla 1, Rufino corner Legazpi Street, Legazpi Village, Makati City