Party Pictures 4/3/06 - David and Julia Koch opened their home in Palm Beach for the American Ballet Theatre; The launch of the Vilcek Prize; Patrick McMullan was feted in San Francisco.

Palm Beach, New York, San Francisco

Down in Palm Beach, David and Julia Koch opened their home, Villa el Sarmiento for a private dinner party and special performance under the stars by dancers from the American Ballet Theatre sponsored by the Palm Beach Committee for American Ballet Theatre to raise money for the ABT.

Julia and David Koch

Graff Jewelers is a sponsor of the ABT’s spring season. An exquisite 18-carat white gold tank watch was auctioned off with proceeds benefiting the ABT.

Among the guests: Emilia and Pepe Fanjul, Lydia and Robert Forbes, Henri Barguirdjian, Anka Palitz, Craig Miller, Dina Merrill, Steve and Christine Schwarzman, Grace and Chris Meigher, George and Freyda Lindemann, Mayor and Mrs. Jack McDonald, Tara and John Milne, Jasmine and Manfredo Horowitz, Lori and Stephen Garofalo, and Peter Lyden.

The evening was preceded by a kick-off cocktail reception at Graff on 221 Worth Avenue, hosted by Henri Barguirdjian, President of Graff USA, saluting American Ballet Theatre and its dancers. Guests included David Koch, Catherine Adler, Candy Booth, Beatrice Cayser, Dale Coudert, Carla and Henry Darlington, Penelope Donely, Nancy Ellison and Bill Rollnick, Jame Foster, Linda Gary and Mike Belisle, Tom Ginley, Judith Hoffman, Theresa and Roosey Khawly, J.R. Lecher, Lazarus Prince, Peter Lyden, and Nancy and Walter Racquet.

The mission of the Palm Beach Committee for American Ballet Theatre is to help generate interest in ABT events and performances and to foster a continued future presence for the company in the Palm Beach community. The Committee helps ABT, America’s National Ballet Company, bring dance to American and the American dance to the world.

Bob Krakoff, Sandy Krakoff, and John Banta

David Koch, Bruce Bockman, and Henri Barguirdjian

Peter Kairis, Rachel Moore, and Peter Lyden

David Koch, Paloma Herrera, Fernando Aldazabal, and Anka Palitz

L. to r.: Carl and Marsha Hewitt; Candide Booth and Dr. Henry Tawfik; Mandy and Mary Ourisman.

Michel Collin, Anka Palitz, and Craig Miller

Perrin Blank, Gerti Kleikamp, and Michel Collin

Angel Corella and Nancy Ellison

Catherine Cahill and Bill Bernhard

Debbie Bancroft with her daughter

Eileen Ekstract and Bernard Schwartz

Emilia Fanjul and Paul Wilmot

Katie Diamond and Peter Lyden

Berg, Soffia, and Thorunn Wathne with Peter Lyden

Carlos Souza and Maria Bockman

Peter and Josephine Kairis

Shannon Davidson and Craig Miller

David Hallberg

Clockwise from above: David Hallberg; View of the Koch house; Anka Palitz and Dame Celia Lipton Farris; Robert and Sandy Krakoff.

Don and Nancy Carter

Dina Merrill and George Lindemann

Dora Fletcher and Brad Comisar

Jasmine and Manfredo Horowitz, and Gillian Murphy

Jean Volpe and Jose Manuel Carreno

Lewis Ranieri, Maria Ricetto, and Steve Schwarzman

Michel Collin, Gerti Kleikamp, and Dr. Perrin Blank

Marie and Henri Barguirdjian with Nancy and Donald Carter

Peter Lyden with Cindy and John Sites

Talbott Maxey, Greg Flescher, and Julia Koch

Shannon Davidson, Craig Miller, and Tara Milne

Brooklyn Mack, Allison Miller, and Carl Hewitt

Talbott Maxey with Bruce and Maria Bockman

Anka Palitz, Eric Tamm, and Isabella Boylston

Catching up. Also when we were away in Europe, we missed the launch of a very important annual awards program – the Vilcek Prize – designed to honor foreign-born Americans who have made extraordinary contributions to society in the arts and biomedical research since immigrating to these shores.

Accompanied by a $50,000 cash award and a commemorative object created by designer Stefan Sagmeister, the Vilcek Prize is the only national award to honor outstanding creative achievement by new Americans.

The first prize was bestowed at a gala ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental to Christo and Jeanne-Claude and to Joan Massague, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, with special guests including Dr. Harold Varmus, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center who delivered the keynote address, and Agnes Gund, President Emerita of MoMA.

Dr. Jan Vilcek, who is a professor and research scientist at NYU School of Medicine, and Marica Vilcek who is an art historian, established the Vilcek Foundation in 2000. The Vilceks were born in Bratislava, Slovakia. They first came to New York in 1965, having left communist Czechoslovakia with all their possessions packed in two suitcases. That same year, Dr. Vilcek accepted a teaching position at NYU School of Medicine and Mrs. Vilcek joined the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she came to devote 32 years of service, primarily in collections management.

At NYU Dr. Vilcek led the groundbreaking research that contributed to the development of a therapeutic drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory disorders. The drug, called Remicade, was very successful and the Vilceks decided to use a portion of the royalties due them from the sales of the medicine to establish the Vilcek Foundation.

L. to r.: Dr. Joan Massague, Roser Salavert, Jeanne-Claude and Christo, and Marica and Jan Vilcek; Jennifer Olshin.

Albert Goodgold, Ruth Goodgold, Ivan Ivanov, and Kalina Ivanov

Dr. Harold Varmus and Agnes Gund

Clockwise from top left: Marica Vilcek, Richard Bockman, Gale Hayman, and William Garrison; Rick Kinsel and Fumiaki Odaka; Ellis Rubinstein, Jan Vilcek, Amy Poster, and Robert Poster.