A Toast to Tony: Inside El Museo’s Million-Dollar Gala

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Earlier this month, icons of New York City’s art scene gathered beneath the vaulted ceilings of The Pool in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s functionalist Seagram Building on Park Avenue for El Museo del Barrio’s annual fundraising gala. The evening, posh but purposeful, was orchestrated by a formidable crew of art collectors and philanthropists—Estrellita and Daniel Brodsky, Agnes Gund, Karla Harwich and Yolanda Santos among them—and it raised over a million dollars to support the East Harlem museum’s programming and preservation efforts. But the true heart of the night was its tribute to the late artist Tony Bechara, whose extraordinary life and legacy gave the gala its emotional ballast.

“Like so many of you here tonight, I held a deep admiration and respect for Tony—his vision, his generosity and his unwavering dedication to El Museo and our community,” said Harwich, stepping up to the mic to honor Bechara’s enduring commitment to Latinx artists and the institution that championed them.

Guests sipped smooth Dobel Tequila cocktails as Senator Chuck Schumer and El Museo del Barrio’s executive director, Patrick Charpenel, offered up similar sentiments. The gravity of the proceedings was balanced by a stirring performance from Puerto Rican opera soprano Larisa Martínez and a recitation by Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco, the fifth inaugural poet of the United States. Sotheby’s presided over a lively auction featuring more than twenty-five works by Latin American and Latinx artists, all consigned by world-class galleries, and an unforgettable set by Leo Gruber & Tren Latino kept spirits buoyant.

Among the artists spotted were Candida Alvarez, Coco Fusco, Claudia Peña-Salinas, Lee Quinones, Ruben Toledo and Jean-Pierre Villafañe, who brushed shoulders with Guggenheim curator Naomi Beckwith, The Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden, Met curator Carlos Picón, El Museo del Barrio curator Susanna Temkin and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art president Julián Zugazagoitia. Also holding court were figures like philanthropist and woman-about-town Jean Shafiroff, author Daisy Auger Dominguez, ABT principal dancer Isaac Hernandez, actors Mauricio Martinez and Juana Burga, filmmaker and activist Paola Mendoza and models Valentina Ferrer, Hiandra Martinez and Lineisy Montero.

“Tony’s legacy will continue not just through what he created on canvas, but through what he built for generations to come. We miss him deeply. And we celebrate him with immense gratitude and love tonight,” Charpenel said, his words echoing emotions shared across the room. It was a night of art, memory and well-dressed joy—just the kind of gathering Bechara might have loved.