Imelda Marcos hoarded shoes. And her former personal secretary in New York hoarded tens of millions of dollars in ill-gotten Monets, according to a new indictment.
Vilma Bautista, 74, hid and then sold four valuable Impressionist paintings that had disappeared from the Philippine consulate townhouse in Manhattan after the Marcos regime was toppled in 1986, prosecutors said.
hobbled into a Manhattan courtroom yesterday with a cane, and She pleaded not guilty yesterday to tax fraud, conspiracy and offering a false instrument for filing.In conspiracy with two nephews from Bangkok, Thailand, She sold Claude Monet’s 1899 “Water-Lily Pond” in September 2010 for $32 million after hiding it for two decades, according to DA Cyrus Vance Jr.She also hid and eventually sold a second Monet, plus paintings by Alfred Sisley and Albert Marquet, despite knowing that the Philippine government sought all four works, the DA said. Officials said the investigation into the Marcos art sale conspiracy is continuing.
Bautista never disclosed the sale income in her tax returns, depriving the state of millions of dollars in tax revenue, Vance said.