Museum denies sale of maestro's artwork

Museum denies sale of maestro's artwork

YOGYAKARTA: Responding to a number of telephone calls, text messages and e-mails regarding rumors on financial problems, the management of Magelang's Widayat Museum denied that it was going to put on sale its precious collections.

Speaking at a press conference held earlier this week in Yogyakarta, Director of the museum Hendro Wardoyo stated that the rumors were completely baseless. "None of the collections belonging to the museum will ever be for sale," said Hendro, who is also the eldest son of the late painting maestro Widayat.

All of the pieces, he said, were the best paintings that Widayat himself had selected during his lifetime to be the collections at the museum that would never be sold.

All the artwork has been registered with a public accountant and legally approved by a notary public.

"There is no way that the collections will be put on sale," Chairman of Widayat Museum's board of curators Oei Hong Djien further assured.

The management also insisted that the museum was running well currently. There are no such financial problems, as rumored. It even has an endowment fund for the management to do the daily maintenance.

That excludes saleable paintings and other artwork of Widayat's that he had left when he died in 2002 at the age of 83 that do not belong to the property of the museum.

Anyone interested in collecting them can contact the Hj. Soewarni Gallery, which has been established to handle such business transactions.

They, therefore, warned the public not to believe any person or institution claiming to be representing the Widayat Museum when they are offering Widayat's works for sale.

"It's not true and illegal," Oei Hong Djien assured. -- JP