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€3.5 Million Raised in 20 Minutes: Inside the American Friends of Versailles Gala

An international guest list spanning politics, the art world and high society gathered in the Hall of Mirrors for cocktails before moving on to a candlelit dinner in the Galerie des Batailles.

“Versailles… exists as an unparalleled and final statement that is likely never to be repeated,” declares the American Friends of Versailles on its website. Yet for all its singularity, like the Ship of Theseus, the Château must be restored, bit by bit, to fend off the ravages of time. Earlier this week, the organization’s annual gala, dubbed A Legacy of Light and held inside Versailles itself, raised money for a specific piece of history: the celebrated Salon de Diane—one of the palace’s most significant painted ceilings. The newly restored Charles Le Brun masterwork from the reign of Louis XIV, untouched since a 1955 conservation round, was unveiled at the gala in all its original brilliance.

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