Photo: Matt Baron/BEImagesThursday night's amfAR gala auction — hosted by Sharon Stone, and attended by Catherine Deneuve and Justin Bieber alike — raised $38 million for AIDS research.
Reuters reports that the highest-fetching lot was artist Damien Hirst's "Gone But Not Forgotten," described as a "gilded skeleton of a woolly mammoth in a steel and glass box," which brought in nearly $15 million. Leonard Blavatnik, identified as the winning bidder, said he doesn't "know yet" what he plans to do with the piece. "It was unexpected," he remarked, as dropping a ton of dough on the festooned bones of an extinct mammal tends to be.
Fashion-wise, the 42 designer dresses presented at Carine Roitfeld's red-themed catwalk part of the evening went for almost $5 million (3.5 million euros). That winning bidder, who failed to provide his name, remarked, "It's not expensive, believe me." A Bulgari serpentine necklace sold for about $525,000 and a pair of Chanel gloves for $13,630. But, omitted from Reuters' roundup is the greatest prize of all — a trip to space on the Virgin Galactic with Leonardo DiCaprio.
The BBC writes that the romantic journey, during which Leo would undoubtedly ask for your Chanel-glove-clad hand in marriage, cost just shy of a milli.