The Philippines is to launch a crowd-sourcing website to seek public help in a fresh attempt to track down up to 200 missing artworks, including several masterpieces, that were last believed to be in the possession of Imelda Marcos.
The widow of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was most notorious for her lavish designer shoe collection, but she and her husband also amassed troves of art and jewellery worth hunreds of millions of dollars during their reign.
Their fortune and legacy will be under increased spotlight in coming months as their son Ferdinand Jr, a senator known by his nickname Bongbong, runs for vice-president in elections in May.
The works that are unaccounted for include paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt and Michelangelo.
Experts from Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses on Friday concluded a week-long appraisal of jewellery seized after the Marcos family fled to Hawaii following the “People Power” uprising in 1986.
The Philippines government will decide whether to auction the collection of tiaras, brooches, necklaces and earrings, including a rare, barrel-shaped pink Indian diamond, after it receives the new valuation.
The jewellery, which is stored in the central bank vaults, was valued at $5 to $7 million when it was last appraised 25 years ago, but the new figure is expected to be significantly higher.
The targets of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, which is attempting to recover the Marcos fortune, also include the family’s art collection.
Andrew de Castro, a commission member, said that the agency would launch the website in coming weeks as it tries to crowd-source information on the missing works.
Mrs Marcos, 86, who is a serving member of Congress and often posed for photographs at home with her treasured paintings, has indignantly insisted that the works were gifts rather than acquired with stolen state funds.
A small number of her paintings were seized by the authorities last year during raids on two properties.
But investigators say that do now know the whereabouts of up to 200 artworks based on a list compiled from documents after the Marcoses fled.
Mr Marcos died in exile in 1989 but his widow subsequently returned to the Philippines. She was charged with a number of crimes but consistently denied embezzlement and was never convicted of any offence.
The family is estimated to have a amassed a fortune of more than $10 billion to fund its lavish lifestyle during the 21-year dictatorship.
Missing works included Pablo Picasso's Reclining Woman VI, Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, Francisco de Goya's portrait of the Marquesa de Santa Cruz and a still life by Paul Gauguin.
After last year’s raid, Mrs Marcos protested that was the victim of a witch-hunt and insisted that she has documents that verify that artworks by Michelangelo, Pablo Picasso, and other famous painters were given to her as gifts.
Among the paintings not on the government list is one by Claude Monet that was sold for $32 million in 2010 by Mrs Marcos' former secretary. Vilma Bautista was sentenced by a New York court to up to six years' imprisonment for conspiring to sell the painting and tax fraud.
Mr de Castro said that the Philippine government was pursuing lawsuits in the US to recover the proceeds from the sale and three other artworks that she attempted to sell.
