The New York Academy of Art Auctioned off Portraits of Unclothed Sitters at its Annual Take Home a Nude Party

“I think I just outbid Brooke Shields by $100,” one party guest said after penciling in a bid during the silent auction portion of last night’s “Take Home a Nude” party, benefitting The New York Academy of Art. “I’m nervous...and excited.” With shots of Milagro tequila circling to give partygoers some added liquid courage, along with passed hors d’oeuvres from Sant Ambroeus, a healthy portion of the evening’s guests did, indeed, take home one of the 220 works on display.

But as it turned out, Shields was not only a bidder but an exhibitor, with two works on view that were created at the school’s Hamptons drawing party. “I’m better at sitting for poses than I am at drawing them,” she joked to us, as she stopped for a chat in the atrium of Sotheby’s Auction House on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “You get past the nudity and into the art, and it’s an extraordinary thing for your brain to experience. It’s about form and expression, and I never knew that—especially the way some of these guys are built.”

She was joined in her appreciation of the human form by Martha Hunt, donning a red Galvan slip dress as she perused the works on offer, eyeing a charcoal nude by Yelena Yemchuk. “I was saying to [Yelena] earlier, usually in old Greek statutes, we see men’s parts, but it’s not as common to see female parts, so I’m fully embracing that tonight,” she told Vogue. Although she was eventually outbid, she instead nabbed a piece by Scott Avett entitled Mischief.

Artist Will Cotton who garnered much of the evening’s praise during the live auction portion, where a commissioned portrait by the lauded artist in his signature fanciful style swiftly raised $200,000. “Oftentimes we’re covering them in candy, or we make whole sets now too with costumes and crowns,” he told Vogue of the lot as he fielded praise from the crowd. “It’ll be a whole thing.”

In all, the evening raised over $1.1 million and closed out with a dinner in honor of artist Dana Schutz, held in the Sotheby’s newly revamped main hall. “Hello nudies,” the academy’s president David Kratz said to laughs as guests took their seats. “This is one of my favorite nights of the year. It’s fun and interactive and extremely competitive. I always say this is where art meets football.”