Opulence and Waste

There was only one big disappointment: no shoes. Otherwise, the display of opulence in the six-story Manhattan town house of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda was just what one would expect. Gold- plated lavatory fixtures. A kitchen on every floor. Three pianos and a harpsichord. Eighteen lace-covered pillows on the First Lady's richly canopied bed. Heroic ten-foot paintings of Marcos as a medal-bedecked leader and Imelda as a latter-day saint. A strobe-lighted and mirrored disco, outfitted with cushions bearing the mottoes of the Marcos millions. Example: "To be rich is no longer a sin, it's a miracle."

This week's auction of the Iron Butterfly's possessions by the Philippine Presidential Commission on Good Government is expected to yield about $750,000 toward financing a worldwide hunt for what could total billions of dollars in Marcos assets. There were signs at the 66th Street town house, formerly the Philippine consulate, that the choicest goodies had been lifted: empty jewel boxes whose satin linings still bore the impress of glinting valuables, and clean blanks on walls where paintings by Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh and Goya had hung. Over the decade, Mrs. Marcos' New York City purchases alone topped $100 million.

The art and antiques expert who cataloged the "collection" was dismayed by the mess left behind in the rush that preceded Marcos' fall in February. Rare Louis XV mirrors were found lying in water in the basement. Expensive stemware had been left in an oven. "It broke my heart," said Auctioneer Alan Erlichman. "Opulence and waste . . . It's a sacrilege." In fact, though Mrs. Marcos had stuffed the house with sugarplums, in recent years she had seldom spent a night there. In New York, she preferred to sleep in the penthouse of the posh Crown Building, which she owned, or to take a set of suites at the Waldorf-Astoria. As yet another cushion in the disco at East 66th Street points out, "Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere."