Negros Occidental city reclaims its stolen Amorsolo

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Fernando Amorsolo’s 1936 'Mango Harvester,' ripped from its home in broad daylight in 2024, returns to a hero’s welcome in Silay City

NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines – For nearly a year, an empty wall space in the private Hofileña Museum indicated a missing artwork. It was something bigger than a painting.

Fernando Amorsolo’s 1936 Mango Harvester, ripped from its home in broad daylight in 2024, returned to a hero’s welcome in Silay City, Negros Occidental on Friday, April 25. 

“It’s really worth a celebration,” Silay Mayor Joedith Gallego said. “The stolen Fernando Amorsolo painting from our city is beyond an artwork, a story that tells our history, culture and heritage rather.”

The city staged a public unveiling, an emotional comeback witnessed by heritage advocates and anyone who believed that losing the Amorsolo was like losing a piece of themselves.

“We’re complete again,” said Silay City Tourism Officer Gerle Sulmaca. “We’ve been waiting for this moment for 10 months already.” 

The 89-year-old painting is part of a private collection of the late Ramon Hofileña yet it’s undeniably been part of Silay’s history, culture, and heritage.

On July 3, 2024, two thieves, a man and a woman, slipped the painting out of the Hofileña Museum and set off a firestorm. Across Negros, people raged. Solomon Lopez Locsin of the Negros Occidental Historical Commission called the public fury intense – the art theft hit nerves stitched into history itself.

Nine days later, authorities cornered the suspects in Quezon City, after they had tried to sell the 12×18-inch painting for P3 million to agents posing as buyers. 

National Museum Director General Jeremy Barns tipped his hat to the cops and agents who refused to let the piece disappear into the black market, praising their “time and efforts” that led to a fast recovery.

Gallego said the Mango Harvester wasn’t just an Amorsolo work, but a part of why Silay has become known as the “Little Paris” of Negros because the city clings proudly to its art, culture, and history.

The 63-year-old Hofileña Museum itself is a fortress of memory in a city thick with ghosts from the golden days of sugar wealth. It was founded by Ramon “Tito Mon” Hofileña, a man whose life mission was to keep history breathing in a modern world that forgets fast.

“We celebrate the return of a story, a memory, and a piece of our cultural heritage that was once taken from us,” said Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson. 

At the Hofileña property, where the past hums through hardwood floors and antique frames, Ramon’s brother, Rene Hofileña, stood in for the late art patron, and thanked the cultural workers, historians, local officials, and law enforcers who refused to let a piece of their soul stay lost. – Rappler.com