The NGV’s biggest donors, Lindsay and Paula Fox, won’t be attending the gallery’s gala on Saturday night, and Premier Jacinta Allan will also be absent. The guest list for the NGV’s lavish annual bash is a carefully calibrated exercise, and organisers will have to hope there are enough members of Melbourne’s cultural, political and business elite in attendance to give the gala sufficient pulling power. Lindsay Fox and Paula Fox attend the 2023 NGV Gala.
Credit: Getty Images for NGV The NGV Gala, which this year launches the gallery’s exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s work , attracts 1400 guests, and tickets sell out in hours at $495 a pop. Guests enjoy free-flowing Moet Chandon champagne, Four Pillars gin and finger food and get to have an early wander through the exhibition. But the most sought-after invitation is to the exclusive dinner beforehand at the gallery, which is for 400 guests.
Some members of Melbourne’s movers and shakers refuse to attend the gala unless they score the dinner invitation, dismissing the gala itself as merely an after-party. Last year, the dinner was held in the NGV’s car park, an edgy but somewhat draughty location that did not go down well with Lindsay and Paula Fox, according to one attendee who requested confidentiality to discuss a private event. The Foxes have donated $100 million to the NGV’s contemporary art gallery, The Fox: NGV Contemporary .
A spokesman for the Fox family declined to comment but said the couple were flyin.
