Maybe it was the setting; maybe it was the fine red Burgundy. Whichever, tongues were loosened in the vaulted stone chambers of upper Manhattan’s Cloisters museum at an 85th-birthday gala for Ellsworth Kelly. The A+ crowd included Anne Bass, Marie-Josée Kravis, Agnes Gund, Glenn Lowry, Jasper Johns and Irving Blum. One of the most prominent attendees had some fun at Thomas Krens’s expense—even though the deposed Guggenheim director was also on hand, raving about the pleasures of riding a motorcycle in the desert (he keeps one in Abu Dhabi). Told that the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim planners were delighted to have Krens around more as part of his new consulting gig, the wag cracked: “Be careful what you wish for!”

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