The Beautiful and the Glamorous Bid High at The Artists for Artists Gala Auction

“Each year, this event gets sexier, more glamorous, and more fun,” exclaimed Sotheby’s Michael Macaulay from the auctioneer’s podium. His audience for the evening’s live auction proved just that. From a Marni silk blouse to a corduroy emerald green suit, it seemed that the attendees’ looks were just as much of a visual treat as the gleaming artworks on display. The sparkle from the many Van Cleef jewels draped around necks and hung on earlobes was enough to light up the room adequately. To put it simply: the Artists for Artists Gala auction to benefit the New York Academy of Art was utterly fashionable and fabulous. But, after the auction’s two-year pause, it only made sense that guests attempted to turn it up.

Nestled in Sotheby’s galleries, the evening began with a silent auction. Glitzy guests with Champagne in hand penned their bids on over 180 works by various artists such as Will Cotton, Tracey Emin, Hugo Guinness, and more. Should anyone have been lost in the glamourous scene, all they needed to do was follow one of the floral-costumed giants catapulted into the air by stilts who guided bidders to the galleries. It felt like a chicer version of a county fair.

At around 8:30 pm, the real fun started with the live auction. The evening’s honoree, Peter Saul, auctioned one of his distinct pieces and caused a bidding tug-o-war. Once Macaulay declared the piece sold for $44,000, thunderous applause erupted.

Afterward, select guests ascended to Sotheby’s seventh floor, where they were met with a three-course dinner courtesy of Saint Ambroeus.  “Yes, the event is glamorous,” Brooke Shields, a Trustee of The New York Academy of Art, told Vogue. “But, it’s glamorous in the sense that the people who continue to support the Academy do so because of their deep desire and love to foster young artists.” That love raised over $800,000—an amount invested into the future of great artists to come.