The golden party ticket? The Frick Collection’s ultra-private, sneak peek re-opening gala. ALEXANDER HANKIN reports from inside the mansion.
The city sky pours buckets of rain. But my excitement for the Frick Collection re-opening gala isn’t even slightly dampened. My look: Fendi tuxedo with cape and a vintage Tiffany flower brooch of sapphires and diamonds. Not yet 7pm and the Frick is buzzing. First, I need to see my friends—and by friends, I mean the Vermeer paintings: “Officer and Laughing Girl,” “Girl Interrupted at Her Music,” and “Mistress and Maid.” By the sweeping staircase, cameras flash, and I see my sister, Danielle Hankin, in vintage Valentino and Polina Proshkina in black-and-white Greta Constantine.
In the newly opened second floor, I encounter one of my favorite works: “Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor” by Jan van Eyck. In front of El Greco’s “St. Jerome,” I bump into Laurence Milstein, the vice chair of the Young Fellows Steering Committee with Harrison Vail and Lilah Ramzi, in vintage Oscar de la Renta. Jordan Roth, who always resembles a work of art, wears vintage Versace. Ivy Getty channels Daisy Buchanan, apropos for the location. I hug Casey Kohlberg, in Schiaparelli, Lizzie Asher, in Valentino and Bailey Foote in Bottega Veneta. Everyone is dressed to the nines. The Gilded Age is back in New York.
For dinner, I’m seated in the Fragonard Room, a Rococo dream. Elizabeth “Betty” Eveillard, the Chair of the Frick’s Board of Trustees, takes the stage. Betty extols the virtues of Ian Wardropper, the museum’s recently retired director, and announces the dedication of the Ian Wardropper Education Room—a magnificent tribute befitting his unwavering commitment to expanding educational horizons. Ian soon takes stage center. “My tuxedo and I got into a race to see who would retire first; the tuxedo won by a few threads,” he quips, ending with “Long live the Frick!” The response is thunderous.
Dessert is a “special delivery” chocolate box that mimics an art shipping crate. I wield a golden hammer and crack the box open to unveil a shortbread cookie baked to resemble edible masterpieces from the Frick’s collection. Even more delicious? The parting gift: a copy of Ian’s book The Frick Collects: An American Family and the Evolution of Taste in the Gilded Age. Outside the sky continues to dump water. But I feel golden, enveloped in the magic of the evening – a grand celebration and prelude to the much-anticipated re-opening of The Frick Collection to the public on April 17.
