06 November 2013 - Professor Eric Zerrudo, Vice Chair of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts- Committee on Monuments and Sites and Consultant for Cultural Projects of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), gave a lecture to the Filipino community in Hong Kong on Juan Luna’s painting “Parisian Life” on October 27 at the Philippine Consulate General’s Conference Room.

The jam-packed lecture focused on the historical significance of the painting and the rationale behind the purchase of the Philippine government, through the GSIS, of the painting in order to return it to the Philippines as part of the country’s national heritage.  Professor Zerrudo also presented the various interpretations of the painting, one of which is the view that the woman in the painting is the geographical likeness of the Philippines.

The lecture was conducted at the Consulate in partnership with Pintura Circle and in commemoration of Juan Luna’s birth anniversary on October 25.  Mr. Angel Raguindin, curator of the Juan Luna Shrine in Badoc, Ilocos Norte, was also a panelist during the open forum.

Juan Luna died on December 09, 1899 in Hong Kong.  His remains were first interred at the Happy Valley Cemetery and in 1953 were exhumed and transferred to the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila.   END