An original painting by renowned Filipino National Artist Fernando Amorsolo has been donated to a Filipino cultural center in San Francisco.

The artwork was a gift to Amorsolo's American friend Harry Salet and his family. It was donated to Sentro Filipino's facility by Salet's great-grandchildren, Anna and Luke Fadem.

Radi Calalang of Sentro Filipino recalled that the family held on to the painting for about a hundred years. He said Salet, a businessman, helped rebuild the Philippines after World War 2.

"He (Salet) got to know Fernando Amorsolo in the 30s and 40s Fernando painted these paintings for him," Calalang said.

The Fadem siblings said they grew up knowing the history of their family in the Philippines and admiring the Amorsolo painting.

"As kids, we were not aware of the importance of the artist," said Luke, "but I think we understood the weight of the painting, within our family and the cultural context.”

The painting is entitled “Woman with Mangoes” – depicting Amorsolo’s style of capturing the rural life of the Philippines at the time.

According to the Fadems, it was the final request of their late aunt to return the painting back to the Filipino people.

"I just didn't want it to wind up in a museum that had tens of thousands of paintings," Anna shared. "It would be in a basement and it wouldn't be really loved and cherished."

"It just made me so happy that it's going to be here. This is going to be its new home, and I don't think it could have a better place to be.”

Luke Fadem added that they feel a "great sense of meaning" to have the painting at Sentro Filipino.

"There a sense of pride, too, that our family and our grandfather are connected to this in some way," he said. "But we couldn't think of a better home.”

Original Amorsolo paintings range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Calalang said the painting has been evaluated but will not disclose numbers.

“I'd say it's enough for us to have to worry about security, which means we have to be very careful about how we display it," he added.

Sentro Filipino plans to have all the security in place so that the public can view it before the end of the year.

Two other Amorsolo paintings can also be seen at the Philippine Consulate located up the street. The paintings were also donated in 2019.