The Anti-Donors
My second column for Contribute magazine is about what I call My Way Philanthropy. It is hands-on, do-it-yourself, do it now, and if someone can make a little money doing it, too, all the better. And for the moment, at least, this new beast is unpredictable, hard to control, big and getting bigger, and pretty […]
Vive La France
Don’t try and wipe that spot off Metropolitan Museum of Art director Philippe de Montebello‘s lapel. It’s the Legion of Honor, which France has previously awarded to American cultural icons such as Marvin Traub of Bloomingdales, Oscar de la Renta and Pauline Trigere of Seventh Avenue and Colin Powell of the State Department (and Weapons […]
White Knight
A source working with Italy’s carabinieri says I got it wrong in my post last week about antiquities collector Shelby White‘s negotiations with the governments of Italy and Greece, two countries that claim her collection includes objects looted from their soil. “Shelby initiated the negotiations and that they are progressing,” says this source. “The opening […]
Museum of Modern Art
In its February issue, Monopol, a German contemporary art magazine, profiles 740 Park, calling it a museum of modern of art, and detailing the holdings of residents past and present: 45 Picassos, 54 Cezannes, 23 Klees, and more.
Fracas at 1000 Fifth
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is about to open its five-years-in the-making new galleries for Greek and Roman antiquities, centered around what it calls the “majestic” and “monumental” Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, formerly the museum’s restaurant. I’ve been researching a history of the Metropolitan, to be published by the Doubleday-Broadway division of Random […]
Schwarzstock
Fortune magazine is the latest to chime in on Steve Schwarzman’s party (and the business acumen that paid for it) in a cover story out today, “The New King of Wall Street”. Alas, the story must have closed before Henry Kravis and KKR trumped Schwarzman’s $39 billion deal with one valued at $45 billion. Your […]
Henry’s Is Bigger Than Yours
Steve Schwarzman may live in a bigger apartment than the one Henry Kravis used to own at 740 Park (or rather, the more discreet side entrance at 71 East 71st Street), but according to the New York Times, Kravis’s Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (along with Texas Pacific Group) is about to top the $39 billion deal […]
Midas Unmuffled
Michael M. Thomas, the heroically candid Midas Watch columnist at the New York Observer, quite properly points out that he was the first ink-stained, uninvited wretch to find something wretched about what he presciently described — before it even happened — as the “one-night orgy of self-promotion for several hundred ‘friends’” that was Steve Schwarzman’s […]
Shelter from the Schwarzman
From today’s e-mailbag. Can anyone answer this question: “The only exception I took with the press coverage of [Steve] Schwartzman‘s party was that no one mentioned that while the revelers were eating caviar and champagne downstairs [at the Park Avenue Armory], on the coldest night of the year, there were lots of women who had […]
Blogrolling in Our Time
Following hard on the heels of the post just below, defending her coverage of Steve Schwarzman’s recent Me-fest, today’s Liz Smith column (second item) spotlights Gripebox’s coverage of her coverage of… well, you get the idea. Smith also reveals that one more “working” journalist attended that fete but has yet to write it up: 740 […]