Fall Fundraising

The top of the Empire State Building from 28th Street between Lexington and 3rd. 1:20 PM. Photo: JH.

10/8. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny autumn day in New York; temperatures in the high 60s. At noontime I went down to the Metropolitan Club on 60th and Fifth where the Lighthouse International was holding its annual fundraising Henry A. Grunwald Award for Public Service.

Mr Grunwald who was born Heinz Anatol Grunwald in Vienna in 1922, came to this country in 1940, as an eighteen year old, with his familiy escaping the Nazi Anschluss of Austria.

While studying at NYU he got a job as a copy boy for Time. The job led to a distinguished career in journalism ending with his being Editor-in-Chief at Time magazine, retiring in 1987. The following year, Ronald Reagan appointed him Ambassador to his native land.

Liz Smith

Rosamund Bernier

Charlie Rose

In his final years, Mr. Grunwald was losing his eyesight through macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is a medical condition usually occurring in older adults which results in a loss of vision at the center of the eye (the macula) because of damage to the retina.

Mr. Grunwald wrote about his experience with in in “Twilight: Losing Sight, Gaining Insight.” It was the first time a popular memoir had dealt with the condition and it soon became the go-to book to describe a problem that has affected millions of people, raising widespread public awareness of vision impairment.

Yesterday, Art and Vision was the theme when Lighthouse International honored art historian and writer John Richardson, author of three volumes (so far) of the life of Picasso; and Elaine and Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts.

The incomparable Liz Smith emceed the event. She first introduced Tara Cortes, President and CEO of Lighthouse Int’l, and then Charlie Rose introduced honorees Elaine and Steve Wynn and Rosalind Bernier introduced honoree John Richardson.

We forget about the preciousness of sight until our eyes start to bother us, or even more troubled situations impair our eyesight seriously to the point of blindness. Tara Cortes reminded us of that yesterday. She also reminded us that among the other problems we’re facing today, the high rate of diabetes in children today (thanks to our diet) will cause an epidemic of blindness in our children a couple of decades down the road. Today among the serious problem is sight impairment in the aging Boomer generation which is currently the largest portion of our population.

John Richardson

Elaine and Steve Wynn

Mr. Wynn who is famous in the world for his spectacular Las Vegas hotels such as Bellagio, the Mirage, etc., is also a famous art collector (he brought Art to Las Vegas). Mr. Wynn’s development of Las Vegas, beginning with the opening of the Mirage in 1989 sparked a building boom that turned the town into the nation’s number one tourist destination as well as the country’s fastest growing city.

Both Mr. Wynn and Mr. Richardson suffer from macular degeneration to differing degrees. Mr. Richardson talked about Picasso and his ability to focus on someone with his eyes. He was clever in using it in attracting interest in people. He said that Picasso knew his eyes had power over others and he used them to exercise that power, and very successfully. He also told us the good news that researchers are very close to a cure for the affliction.

Mr. Wynn whose condition appears to be more advanced than Mr. Richardson told us about how he deals with the situation. Humor is his assistant. He told a very funny story of choosing the wrong door when he got out of bed to use the bathroom late at night in his hotel suite in St. Petersburg, and thus getting locked out of his suite altogether, stranded in the hallway in the buff. Because hallway lights in Russian hotels go dim to dark when not in use, he had a hard time finding his hotel room door. The first one he banged on was answered not by his wife but by a man who thought he was crazy and slammed the door in his face. Finally he made the right choice and his wife came to the rescue, laughing when she got a glimpse of her husband standing there in the dark hallway with nothing on.

Tara Cortes of Lighthouse International, John Richardson, Elaine and Steve Wynn, and Charlie Rose

The Lighthouse is a familiar institutional name to Americans. What many of us don’t realize is the variety of their tasks and work. Site impairment is common, beginning with those of us who need glasses to see clearly or to read. John Richardson told us yesterday that they are also getting close to finding a cure for macular degeneration – a fantastic inroad to a condition that has afflicted millions and millions of people.

Being able to see is primary to independence and that is what the Lighthouse International works to provide for us all. To learn more visit www.lighthouse.org.

Among those attending yesterday were Louise (Mrs. Henry Grunwald), Anna and Graydon Carter, Annette de la Renta, Donna and Bill Acquavella, Henry and Nancy Kissinger. Enid Nemy, Siri and Tony Mortimer, Annette Tapert, Elizabeth Peabody, Helen O’Hagan, Agnes Gund, Priscilla Rattazzi Whittle, Cynthia Boardman, Maria Cooper Janis, Elizabeth Rohatyn, Liz Mezzacappa, Liz Bolen, Marianna Kaufman, Hugh Bush and Doug Cramer, David Monn, Gayfryd Steinberg, Kathy Steinberg, Sean Driscoll, Linda Wachner, Gil Shiva, Suzanne Goodson, Stephen and Cathy Graham, Lynn Nesbit, Fernanda Niven, Sydney Shuman, Wendy Breck, Olivia and Warren Hoge, Sharon Hoge, Casey Ribicoff, Barbara Tober, Lee Niven, to name only a few.

Mica Ertegun and Elaine Wynn

Tom Fallon and Annette Tapert

Cathy Graham and Gil Shiva

Kathy Steinberg and Gayfryd Steinberg

Priscille Rattazzi Whittle and Jennifer Isham

Somers Farkas and Charlie Rose

Annette de la Renta, John Richardson, and Maria Cooper Janis

Graydon Carter and Anna Scott

Rosamund Bernier, Tara Cortes, and John Richardson

Doug Cramer and Louise Grunwald

Helen O'Hagan and Hugh Bush

Meanwhile, coming out of the Metropolitan Club after the luncheon, there was a long line of well-dressed men and women, seventy or eighty in number waiting patiently to enter the “employees” door of Barneys New York, no doubt signing up for work for the holidays. Around the corner and up the block on 61st Street and Madison, I was waiting for a cab when a green chauffeur driven Rolls Royce sedan pulled up to the curb.

The license plate “Sold 1” I knew it belonged to Sharon Baum, one of the longtime top producing real estate brokers in New York. When she got out, she stopped to chat about the current financial situation. She told me that one of her “indicators” was the manicurists and how their businesses were faring. Her manicurist told her that business was steady in the in the manicure department but in the pedicure department it was way up for pedicures as well as “corns and bunions.” Because, she explained to Mrs. Baum, “people are walking more to save their money.”

Real estate broker Sharon Baum's SOLD 1.

Last night, the Rubin Museum of Art held its second annual Nine Rivers Gala at the museum on 17th Street and Seventh Avenue.

Named after nine revered rivers in Asia fed by snows from the Himalayas, event was staged on six levels around the museum’s dramatic spiral staircase.

The museum is the remarkable achievement of a New York couple, Donald and Shelley Rubin who more than 30 years ago happened to see a piece of Asian art in the window of a Madison Avenue art gallery and decided to spend what little money they had saved to buy it. That purchase ignited a passion that today is realized in the museum which they built for their now enormous collection of Asian art. Built in the re-designed interior of the old Barney’s (before they moved uptown in the 1980s), the Rubin Museum today is a treasure trove and considered also one of the “50 most peaceful places in New York.”

Mr. and Mrs. Rubin were last night’s hosts. The RMA bestowed its Mandala Award for Art and Humanitarian Achievement on Her Royal Highness Ashi Kesang Wangmo Wangchuck, the Princess of Bhutan, and Matthieu Ricard, the French biologist-turned-Buddhist monk and acclaimed author.

The Princess was honored for her charitable activities in the health sector. In Bhutan, she has created clinics for leprosy and cancer patients and maternity and pediatric wards, and has worked on behalf of disabled children for UNICEF in Cambodia and AIDS patients in India. Mr. Ricard has received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in Asia.

Among those attending the awads and dinner were Ambassador Daw Penjo of Bhutan; UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen of India; Consul General Prabhu Dayal of India; Daljit Dhaliwal, of PBS, who emceed the awards ceremony; Jeffrey Steingarten, of America’s Iron Chef; Tom Duane, New York State Senator; and Charles and Valerie Diker, major art collectors and Connie Spahn, whose husband was one of the founding board members of the museum.

Daljit Dhaliwal and Ravi Akhoury addressing the crowd

Ravi Akhoury, Daljit Dhaliwal, Her Royal Highness Ashi Kesang Wangmo Wangchuck, and Shelley Rubin

Other honored guests include Sonam Wanchuk and Lama Karma Tenzin, Buddhist monks who are staying in New York City to bless and purify the exhibition, The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, currently on view at RMA. The exhibition assembles rarely-seen treasures from Bhutan, a remote and seldom-visited mountain kingdom in the Himalayas.

The gala evening ended on a spectacular note with a tattooed aerialist reenacting a Bhutanese legend by plunging 90 feet down the museum’s circular staircase to retrieve a tiny crystallite skull from a sari-clad Indian singer, and returning to the top floor in a blast of blinding light, treasure clutched in hand.

Proceeds from the evening go to support RMA’s mission. Last year’s Gala raised in excess of $750,000. This year’s Gala is expected to raise $850,000.