THE Temple of Dendur was built on the Nile in 15BC by the emperor Augustus for the goddess Isis of Philae. Its ruin now sits in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, in an atrium bathed in light from Central Park. Today, at the paws of a Sphinx staring out towards Long Island, there is mayhem. In a few hours a dinner will be held here in honour of a modern-day pharaoh, Leonard Lauder, a cosmetics billionaire who has donated over $1 billion of cubist art to the Met. An army of future Oscar winners temporarily working as waiters is being told how not to drop food on the laps of some of the world’s richest people. Leon Black, Wilbur Ross and John Paulson, all apex Wall Street predators, are among the guests.
Amid three-dozen tables an intense Dutchman is issuing orders. Remco van Vliet is the creative force behind tonight’s event. The tycoons, the menu, the subtly glittering tablecloths, the lights, sound-system and Sphinx are all, in his eyes, subordinate to one thing: the flowers. His father sold blooms in Den Helder in Holland. Tonight’s effort makes the old man’s bouquets look like plastic roses. For each table, Remco has designed a subtle and luxurious cluster of dahlias, silver brunia, tulips, sweet peas, anemones and dusty miller (which has metallic, furry leaves). The flowers are even pricier and more exotic than the guests: they have travelled from sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and California.
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