Overview
- The fundraiser, which took place Monday, brought in a record $42 million for the Met’s Costume Institute, the museum confirmed.
- Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos served as lead sponsors and honorary chairs with a reported $10 million contribution, while Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, Snapchat, and Shopify bought tables as tickets hit $100,000.
- Tech leaders including Adam Mosseri and Sergey Brin were visible on the carpet, as Bezos and first-time attendee Mark Zuckerberg skipped the step-and-repeat and entered quietly, with Sánchez walking in Schiaparelli.
- Labor groups staged a “Ball Without Billionaires” counter-show and ran citywide actions with posters and building projections, as figures like Mark Ruffalo amplified worker videos and some past attendees opted out.
- The gala launched the “Costume Art” exhibition and the new Condé M. Nast Galleries, underscoring that the Costume Institute relies on private fundraising even as tech’s growing role draws scrutiny.