British Museum Announces Second Edition of Fundraising Ball

Following a busy week for The British Museum, the London institution has today announced details of the second instalment of its fundraising event, The British Museum Ball.

The event will take place on 17 October under the artistic direction of award-winning artist and designer Es Devlin, and will do away with 2025’s pink theme in favour of a red visual identity—a nod to the earliest pigment known to have been used by humans in artistic expression. 

According to The Times, a ticket to the star-studded party will this year cost £3,500 with a donation, an increase of £1,500 on last year’s price tag.

In a statement, the museum described the ball as “the defining highlight of London’s cultural and social calendar this autumn”. Nicholas Cullinan, director of the government-funded space, said the event “embodies the institution’s unique role as a global meeting place for cultures, ideas and creativity”.

He added: “Bringing together artists, collectors, patrons and cultural leaders from around the world, it celebrates the power of cultural exchange while championing the Museum’s future.”

Last year’s event drew almost 900 guests, including big names from across the worlds of art and politics—Tracey Emin, Mick Jagger and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, among others—and raised a total of £2.5 million for the museum’s international partnerships programme. However, it also attracted criticism, including from Greek officials, who accused the institution of “provocative indifference” after it sat guests close to the hotly disputed Parthenon marbles.

During the event, a speech by the museum’s chair of trustees George Osborne was disrupted by a protestor, who demanded the institution cut ties with oil company BP and end its role in “actively upholding imperialism”. Osborne, a former Conservative member of parliament and chancellor of the exchequer, told the crowd: “It is great to live in a democracy.”

This year’s ball, shaped by Devlin, is inspired by the museum’s three autumn exhibitions: the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry, a display marking the 250th anniversary of the United States and an exhibition exploring 2,000 years of Korean creativity. According to a statement, this year’s colour of choice, red, is a “unifying thread” through each of the shows, “from the embroidered wool of the tapestry, the stripes of the American flag to the rich hues found across centuries of Korean art”.

Proceeds from the event will support the museum’s Masterplan, which includes the construction of two new welcome pavilions designed by London-based architects Studio Weave, and a new Energy Centre Programme. Work on the latter is already underway, and, according to the museum, is expected to “dramatically reduce” its carbon footprint.

The evening will be chaired by founder, chairman and chief executive of the asset management firm WorldQuant Igor Tulchinsky, in recognition of his support for the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition. It is unclear how much the US-based, Belarussian-born billionaire has donated to the show, though Spear’s reports the figure as “in the region of £5 million”.

On Wednesday, the museum released the first batch of tickets for its historic exhibition, leading hundreds of thousands of people to join hours-long digital queues and generating £2.5 million in sales. According to the museum, this was the biggest single day of ticket sales in its history.

Though the exact number of tickets sold has not been confirmed, a statement said an online queue reached a peak of more than 80,000 and the museum’s website saw 4.7 times its average daily traffic.