May 2017
2017-05-12 13:12 | Cultural Exchange Award Luncheon
On May 1, 2017, AAF hosted a luncheon at the Metropolitan Club in New York City honoring two internationally renowned museum directors; Sabine Haag, Director of the Kunsthistorishes Museum Vienna, and Philippe de Montebello, Chairman of the Hispanic Society of America, Director Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to inaugurate the AAF Cultural Exchange Program.
The Honorable Ronald S. Lauder spoke of his love of Austria, art and the contributions, which each honoree has made upon presenting the awards to Ms. Haag and Mr. de Montebello. Luncheon guests included Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, Frick Museum director Ian Wardropper, Museum of Modern Art director Glenn Lowry, Neue Galerie director Renée Price, Metropolitan Museum of Art director Tom Campbell, artist Jeff Koons, Austrian Ambassador to the United States Wolfgang Waldner, Austrian Consul General in New York Georg Heindl, AAF Trustees, and friends of the arts.
The luncheon raised over $70,000 to support AAF’s new curatorial exchange program and the first two young curators will be selected in 2018.
Special thanks to Andreas Rath at J. & L. Lobmeyr for the awards (a monogrammed candy dish designed by Oswald Haerdt) and Mag. Miriam Feyer of Demel, Vienna for the delightful Figaro chocolates, which accompanied dessert.
