Ayala Museum offering free admission on final day of Juan Luna exhibit

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala Museum will be opening to the public free admission on March 24, coinciding with the last day of the “Splendor: Juan Luna, Painter as Hero” exhibition.

The penultimate Sunday of March serves as the culminating day of the exhibit presented in cooperation with Leon Gallery, which includes Luna’s long-lost masterpiece, “Hymen, oh Hyménée!”

Prior to its public display at the museum last year, the painting depicting an ancient Roman wedding was last seen over 130 years ago at the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1889 and was even called “the holy grail of Philippine art.”

“We are very proud of what we have achieved through this exhibition,” said the museum’s senior director Mariles Gustilo. “It showed us that our kababayans, even in this digital age, are very much interested in discussing what being Filipino means in the face of an increasingly global society.”

Ayala Foundation president Tony Lambino added, “In the face of questions and controversies about meaning and identity in our time, we can always look back to the examples of Luna and the other ilustrados who fought courageously against the thinking that Filipinos are a lesser people and that, in fact, we have the agency to chart our own path as a people and as a nation.”

Other exhibits of the Ayala Museum will be free to the public on March 24 including, “Gold of Ancestors: Pre-colonial Treasures of the Philippines,” “Diorama Experience of Philippine History,” “Imprint” on Fernando Zóbel, and the Shell National Students Art Competition winnners in “Mindscapes.”

Slots for free visits to “Splendor” and the Ayala Museum on March 24 must be reserved, registration will be announced on the museum’s social media pages and will observe a first-come, first-served practice.

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