Displaying items by tag: bond

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is preparing to launch “the most high-profile cultural building project in New York over the next ten years,” Thomas Campbell, the museum’s director, recently told "Vanity Fair." Now, the institution is putting its money where its mouth is. The Met is planning a $250 million bond offering on January 26 to finance capital infrastructure improvements over the next decade, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The Met’s $250 million increase in debt coincides with an ambitious plan to overhaul its Modern and contemporary galleries. Although the museum has not tapped an architect or revealed a budget for the project, Campbell hopes to finish the gut renovation in time for the Met’s 150th anniversary in 2020.

Known for her extravagant shoe collection, one-time Philippine first lady, Imelda Marcos, also accrued an admirable art collection during her late husband’s reign. Marcos’ former secretary, Vilma Bautisa, was indicted on Tuesday, November 20^th, on charges of conspiracy, tax fraud, and offering a false instrument for filing, all relating to artworks that had previously belonged to Marcos. 74-year-old Bautista acquired a number of important paintings from Marcos and her husband, Ferdinand, after his regime came crashing down in 1986 after a citizen revolt.

The Manhattan District Attorney hit Bautista, a New York resident, with charges that she was conspiring to sell paintings that were the legal property of the Philippine government. The District Attorney’s office claims that Bautista used false paperwork to sell Le Bassin aux Nymphéas (1899) from Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series in September 2010 for $32 million. The other works in Bautista’s possession are Monet’s L’Eglise et La Seine a Vétheuil (1881), Alfred Sisley’s Langland Bay (1887), and Albert Marquet’s Le Cypres de Djenan Sidi Said (1946). The four paintings involved in the suit once hung in a Manhattan town house used by Imelda Marcos and her husband.

Two of Bautista’s nephews were also charged but did not appear in court. Bautista pleaded not guilty and was released on a $175,000 bond.