Shoe freak former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos’ money-hungry former secretary stole a Claude Monet painting from a Manhattan consulate and sold it for $32 million, prosecutors argued during opening statements of the aide’s larceny trial in Manhattan Wednesday.
“At bottom this case is really quite simple — it’s about greed and fraud,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Garrett Lynch told jurors.
Vilma Bautista, 74, is charged with hoarding millions of dollars in art she stole from the Philippine consulate in Manhattan after the Marcos regime fell in 1986, prosecutors said.
Along with a pair of relatives, Bautista allegedly sold Monet’s 1899 “Water-Lily Pond” for $32 million to a London art gallery in 2010, prosecutors said.
The pricey piece was just one of four paintings she’s accused of stealing, and then hiding away for sale in the future.
Bautista’s defense argued that she had a certificate of authority from the 84-year-old Marcos to sell the paintings on her behalf.
Attorney Susan Hoffinger claimed her client had written permission from 1991 to deal the works but hadn’t gotten around to turning the proceeds over to Marcos.
“Vilma Bautista has been made a scapegoat in this political struggle,” she said.
Bautista also stole Monet’s “L’Englise et La Seine a Vetheuil,” Alfred Sisley’s “Langland Bay” and Albert Marquet’s “Le Cypres de Djenan Sidi Said,” prosecutors charged.
The current Philippines government has embarked on a campaign to recover valuable works of art that were acquired by Marcos and her late husband, Ferdinand Marcos, during their contentious reign.
Bautista is charged with tax fraud, conspiracy and offering a false instrument.