The Ayala Museum and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) collaborated on an exhibition that demonstrates the rich artistic tradition, complex social hierarchies, and sophisticated economic practices of the pre-colonial Philippines at the Ayala Museum on May 17, 2024.
Titled “Reuniting the Surigao Treasure,” this new exhibition adds a select 38 gold works loaned from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to around 1,000 gold items on permanent display at one of the leading private museums in the country.
Officials and guests who attended the opening reception were AFI President Tony Lambino, BSP Corporate Affairs Director Jay Edward Amatong, Monetary Board Member and former BPI Board Director Romeo Bernardo, ACMobility CEO Jaime Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, and Margarita Aboitiz Zobel de Ayala, BPI Independent Director and former BSP Assistant Governor Maria Dolores Yuviengco, Monetary Board Member and former BPI Board Director Romeo Bernardo, among others.
"For the first time ever in the Philippines, these once-dispersed gold objects have finally come together in the exhibition ‘Reuniting the Surigao Treasure’ here at Ayala Museum. Because of the collective effort between us and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Filipinos young and old alike can visit, revisit, and marvel at these breathtaking objects, inspiring and reminding us of our country’s glorious pre-colonial past and what it says about us as a people," shared Mariles Gustilo, Senior Director of Ayala Museum.
Among the objects included in the exhibition are those that come individually from either the Ayala Museum or the BSP collection but would tell a fuller story together. This includes the reunion of a massive, four-kilogram gold chain believed to be a Hindu upavita, or sacred thread (Ayala Museum) with its pronged finial (BSP). Also reunited are intricately woven gold waistbands with seven complete belts from the BSP collection and several partial and complete sashes and buckles from Ayala’s collection.
Photos by Ayala Museum and Sonny Espiritu