Marian Pastor Roces, a cultural critic and independent curator, criticized actress Beauty Gonzalez for wearing “grave robber stuff” at a recent event.

Roces said that the gold pieces Gonzalez wore were likely obtained illegally, as they would otherwise belong to the National Museum or the Bangko Sentral. She also questioned why Gonzalez would wear death masks as a necklace, even if the owners of the masks had been dead for a thousand years.

Gonzalez responded to the criticism by saying that the gold pieces she wore were more or less a thousand years old and that her look was “an appreciation for Philippine Ancestral Gold.” She said that she did not know the provenance of the pieces, but that she had bought them from a reputable dealer.

The controversy has sparked a debate about the ethics of wearing ancestral gold jewelry. Some people believe that it is disrespectful to wear jewelry that was made from the remains of the dead, while others believe that it is a way to appreciate and preserve Philippine culture.