The much-hyped fundraising gala at the British Museum, the ‘Pink Ball’, has triggered the ire of detractors after its inaugural event.
The evening was interrupted by a protester representing Energy Embargo for Palestine. The woman, who gained access working as a waitress for the company hired to cater the event took to the stage as former British Chancellor and Museum Chair of Trustees George Osborne was making a speech.
The unnamed protester, still in her black and white uniform, highlighted the the museum’s £50 million sponsorship deal with BP, a “company that is causing climate collapse and actively enabling the genocide in Gaza” and called out gala’s co-chair Isha Ambani. The Indian business woman is the daughter of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance, a ‘oil, gas, and surveillance’ company.
The Times also reports a complaint by the Greek government over the Pink Ball. The Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni called the Pink Ball’s dinner segment, held among the stolen Parthenon marbles, a demonstration of ‘provocative indifference’.
Mendoni continued: ‘Such actions are offensive to cultural assets and endanger the exhibits themselves. This is exactly what the British Museum administration did last Saturday, once again using the Parthenon Sculptures as decorative elements for the dinner it organised.’
The inaugural Pink Ball is the initiative of the museum’s new celebrity-friendly director Nicholas Cullinan with tickets costing £2,000 each and raising £1.6m for international partnerships.
Among the guests were actors James Norton, Sacha Baron Cohen; model Naomi Campbell, Emirati Sheikha, Al Mayassa; former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and London mayor Sadiq Khan.
Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice were scheduled to attend but pulled out following further revelations pertaining to father Andrew Windsor’s relationship with paedophile networker Jeffrey Epstein.
