Scene Last Night: Blankfein, Koch, Rushdie at Met Arab Gala
David and Julia Koch paused in front of a 14th-century prayer niche from Isfahan made of blue ceramic tile.
Salman Rushdie and son Milan looked up at a vaulted red- and-gold ceiling from 16th-century Spain.
Coca-Cola Co. Chairman Muhtar Kent and his wife, Defne, strolled past a fountain filled with flower petals in an ornately carved Moroccan Court.
Last night, the Metropolitan Museum of Art invited 700 guests to a celebration of its newest galleries.
Opening to the public on Nov. 1, the 15 rooms are formally known as the Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. Their renovation began in 2003.
“I’ve been waiting so many years for this. I can’t believe it’s finally happening,” said art collector Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, board member of the Museum of Modern Art and wife of Venezuelan billionaire Gustavo Cisneros.
On view are 1,200 objects from the museum’s collection of more than 12,000. Some carpets have their own rooms, while a piece of carnelian inscribed in Hebrew, no bigger than a thumbprint, is in a glass display case with other objects found on a Met excavation in the 1930s.
“It’s overwhelming,” said author and preservationist Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, who was there with her husband, Carl.
In the Great Hall, the information desk was transformed into a bar. Waiters passed fava-bean puree on toast.
Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group, searched for one of his deputies, Sharmin Mossavar- Rahmani, chief investment officer for the Private Wealth Management Group of Goldman Sachs’s Investment Management division.
Mossavar-Rahmani and her husband, Bijan, funded the gallery of Safavid and later Persian Art (1500-1924).
Thomas Campbell, the museum’s director, posed for a photograph with Rahmi M. Koc, head of the Istanbul-based Vehbi Koc Foundation, which supported two galleries of Ottoman art.
At 8 p.m., trumpeters urged guests into the Temple of Dendur, among them Elbrun and Peter Kimmelman, in matching robes with silver thread, Richard Avedon’s grandson Michael and Oscar and Annette de la Renta.
Dinner included lamb chops, harissa-style relish and the recitation of a long thank-you list by Campbell. No-shows included the Afghan ambassador to the U.S., whose boss, President Hamid Karzai, had uttered comments on Pakistan and the U.S. that he would later seek to re-say, but by then everyone was done with the pistachio ice cream.
Harlem Gala
R&B singer Janelle Monae, in her signature menswear, blended into the chic crowd at the Studio Museum in Harlem gala, where guests included designer Tracy Reese and Valentino Carlotti, president of Goldman Sachs’s Brazilian unit.
The party started at the Museum of American Finance, then moved to Cipriani Wall Street. During a dinner of sea bass and polenta, Raymond McGuire, head of global banking at Citigroup Inc., presided over the presentation of the Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize to sculptor Leonardo Drew.
The band GDO Soul gave guests the most fun of the evening. Thelma Golden, director of the museum, hit the dance floor with her husband, designer Duro Olowu.
IPod Shuffles
Liev Schreiber emceed the New York Public Radio gala at 583 Park, a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the classical music radio station WQXR.
“WQXR is still the soundtrack of my youth,” said Schreiber. “Thank you for the many years of classical music I’ve had to endure and that hopefully my children and my children’s children will continue to endure.”
After dessert, Lang Lang played Chopin and Liszt for an audience including Peter J. Solomon, chairman and founder of Peter J. Solomon Co. At every place setting, guests found their own iPod Shuffle containing a recording of Stravinsky by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and podcasts of “Radiolab,” “Freakonomics Radio” and the new show “Here’s the Thing” with Alec Baldwin.”
Ice Cream Cones
Former hedge-fund manager Michael Steinhardt and his son David tried the kosher-ice-cream cones at the American Friends of the Israel Museum Art Next Next Art gala at Cipriani 42nd Street. Neither thought they were very good, but there was plenty else to try on the dessert buffet, including black-and- white cookies and chocolate-almond clusters.
The ladies, including Chloe Waddington, who works at Christie’s, and Emily Kaplan, who works at Sotheby’s, gravitated to the fruit.
(Amanda Gordon is a writer and photographer for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. Any opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net or on Twitter at @amandagordon.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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David and Julia Koch.
David and Julia Koch. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Thomas Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, talks with Bloomberg's Melike Ayan about the museum's newest galleries in New York. Opening to the public on Nov. 1, the 15 rooms are formally known as the Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. Last night, the museum invited 700 guests to a celebration of the galleries. (Source: Bloomberg)
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs Group.
Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs Group. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Co., in the Mughal South Asia gallery.
Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Co., in the Mughal South Asia gallery. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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In the Moroccan Court.
In the Moroccan Court. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Salman Rushdie and his son Milan.
Salman Rushdie and his son Milan. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani.
Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Julian Lethbridge and Anne Bass.
Julian Lethbridge and Anne Bass. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Emily Rafferty, president of the Metropolitan Museum, and Daniel Brodsky, the museum's chairman.
Emily Rafferty, president of the Metropolitan Museum, and Daniel Brodsky, the museum's chairman. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Peter and Elbrun Kimmelman.
Peter and Elbrun Kimmelman. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Annette and Oscar de la Renta.
Annette and Oscar de la Renta. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Phoebe Campbell and Thomas Campbell, director, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Phoebe Campbell and Thomas Campbell, director, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Marilyn Wolf in an ikat tunic she purchased in Kashkar. Wolf is a donor of Turkman jewelry to the Met's collections.
Marilyn Wolf in an ikat tunic she purchased in Kashkar. Wolf is a donor of Turkman jewelry to the Met's collections. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Adrienne Arsht.
Adrienne Arsht. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Metropolitan Museum Gala
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Vartan Gregorian, president of the Patti and Everett B. Birch Foundation, which funded the Moroccan Court and another gallery in the Met's new installation of Islamic art, and Shelby White, funder with her late husband Leon Levy of the Met's Greek and Roman Galleries.
Vartan Gregorian, president of the Patti and Everett B. Birch Foundation, which funded the Moroccan Court and another gallery in the Met's new installation of Islamic art, and Shelby White, funder with her late husband Leon Levy of the Met's Greek and Roman Galleries. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Studio Museum in Harlem Gala
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
R&B singer Janelle Monae.
R&B singer Janelle Monae. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Studio Museum in Harlem Gala
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Author Susan Fales-Hill and designer Tracy Reese.
Author Susan Fales-Hill and designer Tracy Reese. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Studio Museum in Harlem Gala
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Raymond J. McGuire, chairman, Studio Museum in Harlem; Thelma Golden, director and chief curator, Studio Museum in Harlem; and Leonard Drew, 2011 recipient, Wein Artist Prize.
Raymond J. McGuire, chairman, Studio Museum in Harlem; Thelma Golden, director and chief curator, Studio Museum in Harlem; and Leonard Drew, 2011 recipient, Wein Artist Prize. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Studio Museum in Harlem Gala
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Chef Marcus Samuelson.
Chef Marcus Samuelson. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Studio Museum in Harlem Gala
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Designer Duro Olowu with his wife Thelma Golden.
Designer Duro Olowu with his wife Thelma Golden. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Studio Museum in Harlem Gala
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Lisa Phillips, director, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Adam Weinberg, director, Whitney Museum of American Art.
Lisa Phillips, director, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Adam Weinberg, director, Whitney Museum of American Art. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Studio Museum in Harlem Gala
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Joel Motley, co-founder and managing director, Public Capital Advisors LLC, with his daughter, Hannah.
Joel Motley, co-founder and managing director, Public Capital Advisors LLC, with his daughter, Hannah. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
New York Public Radio
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Stephen Dubner of "Freakonomics Radio" and Graham Parker, head of WQXR.
Stephen Dubner of "Freakonomics Radio" and Graham Parker, head of WQXR. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
New York Public Radio
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Audra McDonald and Liev Schreiber emceed the New York Public Radio gala.
Audra McDonald and Liev Schreiber emceed the New York Public Radio gala. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
New York Public Radio
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Pianist Lang Lang.
Pianist Lang Lang. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
American Friends of the Israel Museum
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The gala decor.
The gala decor. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
American Friends of the Israel Museum
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Michael Steinhardt and his son David Steinhardt.
Michael Steinhardt and his son David Steinhardt. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
American Friends of the Israel Museum
Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum.
James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
American Friends of the Israel Museum
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Michael Karsch of Karsch Capital, Neil Rubler of Vantage Properties and Edmond Safra.
Michael Karsch of Karsch Capital, Neil Rubler of Vantage Properties and Edmond Safra. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
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