15 Facts About Ramon Villegas

Ramon Nazareth Villegas more popularly known as Mon Villegas or Boy Villegas, was a Filipino curator, art historian, jeweler, author, antiquities dealer, and poet.

Ramon Villegas was best known for chronicling the history of Philippine art and antiquities in various publications in both the Philippines and overseas.

Ramon Villegas was born in Manila on September 22,1953, to Rosendo Ramon Villegas and Illuminada Nazareth of Batangas, who was herself a jeweler.

Ramon Villegas finished his primary and secondary education at the La Salle Greenhills in 1966 and 1970 respectively, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in literature, with honors at the De La Salle University Manila in 1976.

Keen on his interests in art and antiquities, Ramon Villegas left the academe and pursued a career as an art historian.

In 1983, Ramon Villegas published his first important publication on Philippine gold and jewelry, Kayamanan: The Philippine Jewelry Tradition for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, one of four publications for the monetary authority detailing their various holdings of Philippine art and antiquities.

Ramon Villegas served as the permanent curator for the BSP gold and pottery collection that was previously exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.

Ramon Villegas served as an art advisor and helped appraise private collections held by the Ayala Corporation, the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Banco de Oro, PHINMA Property Holdings Corporation, and the United Coconut Planters Bank.

From 2013 until his death in 2017, Ramon Villegas later served as a historical consultant for Leon Gallery Fine Art and Antiques, one of the leading auction houses in the Philippines and wrote essays on Philippine art, colonial art and colonial furniture for their auction catalogues.

Amongst the important collectors that Ramon Villegas represented through his career, his close association with Philippine art collector Paulino Que has been considered as one of his most enduring contributions in Philippine art.

Ramon Villegas subsequently wrote two cover issues for the international art and antiquities magazine Arts of Asia that featured the Que collections of Philippine colonial furniture in 1991 and their collection of Philippine modern and contemporary art in 2004 respectively.

Ramon Villegas later took ownership of the said jewelry shop, and was later renamed as Capricci Jewellers and Goldsmiths that specialized in contemporary jewelry designs and was situated at the Manila Garden Hotel.

Ramon Villegas later established Yamang Katutubo Artifacts and Crafts a shop centered on Philippine antiques, which subsequently transferred to the La'O Center in Makati that continued until he died in 2017.

Ramon Villegas died on August 6,2017, in Makati, the Philippines at the age of 63.

In 2019, a dining table made by artisans from Bohol from the private collection of Ramon Villegas dating from the 19th century was sold for a record PHP467,200 at Leon Gallery auction in Makati.