President Rodrigo Duterte has become the subject of several artists’ works, articles cropped up on Facebook claiming that a Duterte painting was bought by China’s richest man for millions of dollars.
The articles were shared by Duterte Facebook fan pages “Duterte News Global” and “Philippine News Portal,” among others. The combined shares from both pages reached over 2,000, not to mention how the over 3,600 reactions and comments showed how the netizens believed in the articles’ claims.
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Chinese billionaire, Wang Jianlin, allegedly bought a Duterte painting for $3 million after he saw it on display in Hollywood during his visit to the US, said the articles. It was also claimed that the Hollywood shop especially had the paintings made for the Wang’s arrival after they were informed that Wang and Duterte were close allies.
The Filipino artist has not been named, but would soon be revealed in due time.
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Among the most notable artists who painted Duterte are Japanese artist Ayumi Endo, who also donated P2 million in support of of the drug rehab facilities and equipment needed in the government’s drug war; Elito “Amang Pinto” Circa, who used his own blood; and Mart Henry “Macky” Bongabong, the fisherman’s son who was commissioned to paint Duterte and whose painting is now displayed at the Malacañang Palace’s lobby.
At least the part about Wang’s company, Dalian Wanda Group, signing a deal with Sony Pictures, is true.
However, the rest of the claims about Wang being Duterte’s ally is a lie.
And the bit about Wang buying a Duterte painting is an even bigger lie. There has been several articles reporting about how Wang invested $20.4 million on a Monet painting and overpaid $28.2 million for a Picasso painting, but not about a Duterte painting.
What we found, though, is another article from website newsprince.com about Wang allegedly paying the same amount of $3 million for a painting of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and that article has a lot of similarities with the article about Duterte’s painting. The only thing that changed was the name of the painting’s subject and the little description about Bolt.
If you might have noticed from the screenshot above, the article about Duterte’s painting from pinoyarticle.com was said to have been sourced from dw-tv3.com. But dw-tv3.com is noted for posting fake articles, which is why it is included in Meme Buster’s list of fake and satire sites.
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Before dw-tv3 went down, it was responsible for publishing several fake articles that we busted, such as stories about UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling Duterte brave, Hillary Clinton showing Duterte some love, Agot Isidro dating drug lords, and more.
Several artists may have painted President Duterte on canvas, but so far, China’s richest man has not bought any of those paintings for $3 million.
Sources: (facebook.com, news.abs-cbn.com, wsj.com, scmp.com, mcall.com)
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