Stolen BenCabs
March 10, 2010
AN international alert has been issued for two paintings by National Artist Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera that had been stolen while on transport from Los Angeles to Singapore.
Benedicto Cabrera
The two acrylic on canvas paintings, Twins and Three Women, were shipped through Federal Express by the Andrew Shire Gallery in Los Angeles to the home of a Singaporean partner of the Los Angeles dealer sometime last month.
According to the grapevine, the tubes containing the paintings were found sawed open when retrieved from the FedEx warehouse in Singapore.
The BenCab paintings were among the exhibits in the three-man show in AndrewShire from Oct. 24 to Nov. 21 that also featured the works of Putu Sutawijaya of Indonesia and Ahmad Zakii Anwar of Malaysia.
According to the grapevine, the two BenCabs had been sold to two prominent Filipinos who asked that the paintings be shipped and picked up in Singapore, rather than sent by air direct to Manila, for fear that the valuable cargo could be waylaid.
The Twins, measuring 48 inches by 48 inches, was painted in 2008 while the Three Women, a rectangular 40 inches by 30 inches, was done a year after.