Cultural critic calls out Beauty Gonzalez for wearing excavated gold jewelry at GMA Gala 2023

MANILA, Philippines — Cultural critic and independent curator Marian Pastor Roces called out Kapuso actress Beauty Gonzalez for wearing jewelry that made a previous appearance at the National Museum and Ayala Museum. 

Beauty wore what she described as “centuries-old gold neck piece and earrings made of excavated eye and mouth covers from distant places like Butuan and Surigao" at the GMA Gala  2023 recently. 

Marian claimed in her Facebook post that Beauty wore "grave robber stuff."

"Because if these were legally excavated, the pieces would belong to the National Museum or the Bangko Sentral," Marian said. 

"Or: if the pieces were excavated decades ago and therefore privately owned by sensible collectors before current restrictions, the question still remains: why death masks as necklace?" she added. 

Beauty said that her necklace was “an appreciation for Philippine ancestral gold.”  

Marian, however, said that ignorance blended with arrogance is not fashionable at all. 

"This fashion victim is wearing mouth and eye covers: around 10 of them. Which is to say that the necklace was fashioned from excavations of many individuals. That is an astounding number of desecrated graves!" Marian said.

"How on earth is this an homage, exhibiting impunity and crassness? Wearing archaeological gold death pieces, flaunting excess, is odious," she added. 

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