Sotheby’s (RED) charity auction on Valentine’s Day raised more than $40 million to fight AIDS in Africa, but the action got going the night before at a cocktail party and preview held at Gagosian’s Chelsea gallery. Event organizers Bono and Damien Hirst sipped pink Champagne alongside Anna Wintour, John McEnroe, Ivanka Trump, Rupert Murdoch and celebrity chef Mario Batali, seen with Jon Bon Jovi. When asked if he was there to scope out a potential purchase, Batali quipped, “No, but I made that Julian Schnabel over there,” nodding to the painter’s enormous homage to slain Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto. Standing tall in his signature orange Crocs, Batali added that he “buys some works from artist friends—but nothing over $50,000.”

"Molto Amore" originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2008 Table of Contents.