Tonight, the British Museum’s lights will be aglow as hundreds of celebrities head inside for a night of champagne, exquisitely-lit galleries and music.
Why? It’s all for the Pink Ball – the brand new fundraising gala held by the Museum’s Director Nicholas Cullinan, together with Indian businesswoman Isha Ambani.
The event is ultra-exclusive: around 800 tickets have been sold, but they are invite-only, cost around £2,000 each and have reportedly already raised around £1.6m for the Museum. As you might expect, that means a very high-end guest list.
How high-end? Well, while we don’t know the whole list yet (that’s set to be published after the event), we do know some of the people on the 100-strong organising committee that’s been putting the event together.
Those include Naomi Campbell, Kristin Scott Thomas, Idris Elba and Sarah Lancashire, while Manolo Blahnik, Alexa Chung, Sophie Dahl and Miuccia Prada are all expected to make an appearance too.
But wait, there’s more. Stephen Fry, Grayson Perry and Zadie Smith are among the names being reported by the Times as attendees, while Courtney Love – who is a close friend of Cullinan’s – is also likely to make an appearance. And that’s without counting the huge number of high-net worth individuals who will be flying in from around the world to claim their seat.
“We’ve got people from academia, film, literature, music, politics and sport,” Cullinan told the Times. “Many come from around the world and 70 per cent have never set foot in the British Museum before. I think I can reveal that our guests will include a couple of Lionesses.”
The guests who do arrive are also being encouraged to adhere to the evening’s pink colour scheme, in honour of the exhibition around which the whole thing has been themed: Ancient India: Living Traditions.
The colour pink features prominently in that, and is being honoured in everything from the dress code to the all-pink carpet.
“It has to be this pink that almost has a bit of purple. It can’t be too blush, or too garish. It can’t be Barbie pink. It’s got to be right,” Cullinan has said.
As part of the night, guests will be able to explore the Museum (including the Ancient India exhibitions), enjoy performances from the legendary sitarist Anoushka Shankar (as well as a few rumoured celeb singers) and bid on things like the chance to see Coco Chanel’s home at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris — something that’s usually reserved for Chanel’s most honoured clients.
