Wednesday April 30th 2008,Phillips de Pury & Company,450 West 15th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY. Free Arts NYC’s Annual Art & Photography Auction "Portraits & Polaroids" was sponsored by 7 For All Mankind and Vanity Fair and raised nearly $800,000, surpassing last year. Actor Clive Owen joined Free Arts NYC board members Amy Sacco and Mary Alice Stephenson as event Co-Chairs, and Free Arts NYC board member and ,Phillips de Pury founder Simon de Pury served as auctioneer. On hand to support the event were Free Arts NYC Executive Director Liz Hopfan, Mary Alice Stephenson, Amy Sacco, Lisa Airan, Mary Boone, Sante D’Orazio, actors Lindsay Price, Kim Raver, Edgar Ramirez, Alexie Gilmore, and Michelle Monaghan, Holly Dunlap, Erin Fetherston, Donna Karan, Derek Lam, Petra Nemcova, Thakoon Panichgul, Samantha and Aby Rosen, Allison Sarofim, Peter Som, John Varvatos, Kelly Wearstler, and Bettina Zilkha among others. This year’s auction celebrated the organization’s 10th anniversary of providing creative arts mentoring programs to children and families. For the sixth consecutive year, the live auction presented unique, large-scale 20x24 Polaroid photographs, created specifically for Free Arts NYC by leading contemporary artists. Artists who took advantage of this unique opportunity included Christopher Wool, Chuck Close, Donald Baechler, Adam Fuss, Kehinde Wiley, Laurie Simmons, James Nares, Marilyn Minter, and Rirkrit Tiravaniji. The benefit also featured a silent auction of 80 artworks loosely based on the theme of "The Portrait" in the broadest and most contemporary sense. Portraits may be realistic or surrealist, representational or abstract, traditional or conceptual. Artist Chuck Close's piece fetched $65,000. Those who were unable to attend the auction, but wanted to participate were able to do so through the internet, view the full catalog, place absentee bids prior to the sale and bid live as the sale is taking place at http://www.liveauctioneers.com. Media Contact: Mohamed Alladin | Company Agenda |tel:212-358-9516 | e-mail: mohamed@companyagenda.com PHOTO CREDIT:©Manhattan Society.com 2008 by Gregory Partanio with Stuart Rinzler |tel:718.614.7740 | e-mail: PrinceGregory@manhattansociety.com