The 21st annual Take Home A Nude auction for the New York Academy of Art (NYAA) was the place to be on October 18th, with the who’s who of Hollywood, the art world elite and high society’s movers and shakers all converging on the Upper East Side of the city.
In attendance included Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts, one of Hollywood’s coolest couples; Andrew J. Hall, head of Astenbeck Capital Management; Martin Margulies, the Miami-based art collector; Eileen Guggenheim, chair of NYAA; and Graham Enser, managing director of Cadogan Tate, one of the sponsors of the evening.
Taking place at Sotheby’s headquarters in Manhattan, the event was, as you would have expected with such luminaries in attendance, a rip-roaring success, raising a grand total of $800,000 (approximately £499,674).
“Naomi and I have been supporting the school for the past seven years,” Schreiber was quoted as saying by Bloomberg: “Eileen helped me at the public theatre and told me about the school that provides classical training for artists, which is something very important to me.”
And so it was that the couple duly played their part, snapping up a number of pieces with absolute pleasure. Watts, who was dressed in a taupe Victoria Beckham dress, is a huge supporter of the Take Home A Nude auction and added that she has now built up an enviable “mini-collection” of art from the annual fundraiser. The couple’s purchases, as well as others, help support the school’s scholarship and public program funding, ensuring that generation after generation of artists are able to get the very best education.
Mr Enser was also a successful bidder, taking home La Jeune Fille Pour La Nuit by Russell King to compliment his already vast collection of Urban Art. It’ll be interesting to see which company he used to ship home his new prized possession.
Some of the works that were up for sale included Figure Study III by Steven Assael, General Priest by William B. Bolton, Hitchcock’s Hands by Vincent Desiderio, Andy Warhol Corn Flakes by Bobby Grossman and The Young Punch Scratches His Burro’s Ear by Robert Taplin.
While the evening could not have gone better, everyone was sad not to be graced by the brilliant Francesco Clemente, who was being honoured by NYAA. Alas, the brilliant Italian contemporary artist was halfway across the world in India, having missed his flight.
Luckily though, his wife and muse Alba, along with his twin sons Andrea and Pietro, were present, and duly accepted the award on his behalf. Clemente did manage to send a message though. Thanking the academy, he succinctly and humbly put across his thoughts on what it is he does: “It is not a talent; it’s a language and it’s my privilege to tell a story.”
Cadogan Tate, sponsors of Take Home A Nude, specialise in shipping artwork all across the world.