£16 million - not bad for a night under the arches

On the platform: Arki Busson with Uma Thurman

12 April 2012

It was a gala dinner with a difference. Only in modern London could such a sumptuous affair be conducted in an old railway shed, with the keynote speaker turning up on his bicycle, and yet raise almost £16 million for a children's charity in the midst of the worst recession in living memory.

Battered and bruised by economic storms its coffers may have been, but London's hedge-fund industry demonstrated last night where its heart lies at the charity auction in support of ARK (Absolute Return for Kids). founded by financier Arpad Busson.

Formed in 2002, ARK supports educational and health projects in Britain, southern Africa and Eastern European.

Gallery: ARK gala dinner

Among the 800 guests at the dinner, staged in the former Eurostar terminus at Waterloo international station, were Elizabeth Hurley and husband Arun Nayar, presenter Jeremy Clarkson, high street supremo Philip Green and Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova and her husband Justin Portman. Busson was joined by his fiancee, actress Uma Thurman.

After dining on Norfolk asparagus, Irish Longhorn beef, black cod and Yorkshire rhubarb, the guests, who included most of the serious players from the hedge-fund world, got down to the serious business of the charity auction, demonstrating that high-end glamour and serious charity giving can go hand in hand.

The biggest bid of £350,000 was for a week's stay for a dozen people on the Getty family yacht, Talitha, while £200,000 secured a five-day luxury trip to Venice and Paris, staying at the Cipriani and Plaza Athenee respectively.

And, more seriously, £105,000 was raised for Aids clinics in South Africa and a total of £750,000 for ARK coaching for students here in Britain.

Other projects funded include the re-housing of abandoned Romanian children and the provision of music-teaching and instruments for children in inner-city UK schools.

ARK also announced that money from the evening would also go towards supporting a new £27million programme to combat HIV/Aids in South Africa over the next two years.

Mr Busson told guests the money raised more than justified his decision to press ahead with the evening, despite the economic climate.

He said: "ARK's work has never been more important than it is today. Poor children bear the greatest risk of this economic downturn.

"Their loss isn't measured in equity values, it's the difference between getting life-saving drugs or not, or having an education or not.''

Guests were serenaded by Lily Allen after the auction.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, who joked that he was "so glad to be invited to a humble disused railway shed" said that he was backing ARK because he wanted all London's youngsters to have a decent chance and that education was the "bedrock of extending opportunity".

Gallery: ARK gala dinner

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