Ladies, dig out your slinkiest cocktail dresses and men, man your bowler hats. It’s time to get down to the business of stealing some art.
Well, sort of.
On Feb. 8th at the Laguna Art Museum, The Art of the Heist Annual Art Auction will have its day. Themed after the original Thomas Crown Affair movie, this is your opportunity to circulate with fellow glam attendees and buy up any number of original art pieces for a steal.
Normally, I don’t write about this event until we welcome the month of February, but peak previews and already-organized schemers are snatching up tickets quickly. Last year’s Art Auction drew more than 400 attendees and enjoyed a 35% increase in revenue for the Museum. Most of those 400 seem intent on returning this year, so I’d advise you find a way to squeeze your way in sooner rather than later.
For the first time, equally-as-glamorous Sapphire Restaurant will be participating in the Art Auction with passed hors d’oeuvres and cocktail bites. Laguna Beach’s Wine Gallery will be offering a bevy of fine wines, too. They’re joined by other popular restaurants, each working together to provide a happy, high-brow evening of cheese and wine pairings, vintage-inspired cocktails, sausage and ale pairings and more.
At least 110 artists and Laguna Beach galleries have donated original works of art for the event. You can begin your strategic plotting … ehhr … preview experience when all the pieces are posted on display at the Art Museum on Monday, Feb. 3rd for the week preceding the Auction.
On Feb. 8th, slink on in, sip a well-constructed cocktail, and, as live art performances and DJ entertainment accompany your stealth, begin your “heist” with the silent auction items. About halfway through the evening, the live auction begins. Led again this year by none other than Christie’s Andrea Fujinski, rumor has it that this auctioneer powerhouse is an artistic performance, in and of herself.