CNN.com - Marcos opens shoe museum
| Former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos opens the museum | |
MANILA, Philippines -- Former First Lady Imelda Marcos, the world's most notorious shoe collector, opened a museum in the Philippines on Friday dedicated to footwear and boosting tourism.
The Marikina City Footwear Museum in Manila includes hundreds of pairs of shoes, some collected from the presidential palace after Imelda and her late husband ex-President Ferdinand Marcos fled the country in disgrace in 1986.
The former first lady, who hopes the museum will boost tourism and help Marikina's local footwear industry, said the shoe shrine was a creative way of turning a negative perception of the country into something positive.
Some of the others shoes were donated by Imelda or by a number of local politicians and film stars.
"Filipinos are very good in recycling problems into assets and they have done a good job (with the museum)," she said.
About 1,200 pairs of shoes were said to have been found in Malacanang presidential palace when Imelda and her husband fled. Critics said the vast collection represented great extravagance and excess particularly in such a poor country.
She has said on a number of occasions that she collected such a vast array of footwear to support the Marikina shoe industry.
Asked by reporters on Friday how many pairs of shoes she presently owned, she smiled and replied: "I don't know, I've really lost count."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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