World Monuments Fund Honors Champions of Cultural Heritage in Glamorous Evening at the Waldorf Astoria New York
At the 37th annual Hadrian Gala, cultural leaders from Abu Dhabi, Japan, the United States, and more mingled with Annabelle Selldorf, Peter Marino, India Hicks, and many other notable attendees
It was a balmy evening in New York as guests strolled off Park Avenue and into the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria, which reopened last year after an eight-year restoration by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Pierre-Yves Rochon. The silver-leafed ceilings and tiered balconies gleamed as they must have in 1931, when the hotel first opened its doors, and the evening leaned happily into the Art Deco mood of that debut.
The occasion was the World Monuments Fund’s 37th annual Hadrian Gala, and the room had the feel of a very well-dressed summit. Cultural leaders from Abu Dhabi, Los Angeles, Japan, and Bahrain, among them H.E. Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Getty president Katherine Fleming, Guggenheim director Mariët Westermann, and music producer Ken Masui, moved between tables, conversations slipping from English to French to Arabic and back again. Architects Annabelle Selldorf and Peter Marino were there, as were Reem Acra, Sabine Getty, India Hicks, Athina Onassis, Marie and Frédéric Malle, historian Sir David Cannadine, and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.
The night honored three champions of cultural heritage: Thomas Buberl, CEO of AXA Group, which has made preservation a corporate priority through major restorations and philanthropic investment; Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi; and the J.M. Kaplan Fund, with Peter Davison and Isabel Fonseca accepting.
“They come from different worlds, but share a belief that heritage is something we choose to protect together,” said Bénédicte de Montlaur, WMF’s president and CEO, describing cultural heritage as a site for connection and resilience.
Pauline Eveillard, Marina Kellen French, and Christian Louboutin served as co-chairs, with David and Caryn Rubenstein as honorary co-chairs. Live music carried cocktails into dinner, and an auction followed, with lots that read like a WMF itinerary: a London stay at the Waldorf Astoria Admiralty Arch with a boat luncheon hosted by a trustee, and a Paris-and-Portugal journey that pairs Le Bristol with Louboutin’s Vermelho Melides and includes a bespoke bag session with the designer himself.
The Waldorf’s own restoration, of course, made the venue the evening’s unspoken fourth honoree. By the time DJ Claudius Raphael took over at the after-party, the ballroom’s dance floor had become a crowded, polyglot argument for exactly what the night was about: that the world’s treasured places are worth keeping, and worth celebrating in.
See more moments from the evening below.
