Cleveland Museum of Art and Friends of the Uffizi “Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de’ Medici’s Valois Tapestries”

The Cleveland Museum of Art and Friends of the Uffizi welcomed more than 180 guests to the museum in November for a benefit evening celebrating “Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de’ Medici’s Valois Tapestries.” Guests were treated to a first look at the recently restored, monumental Valois Tapestries, commissioned in the late sixteenth century by Catherine de’ Medici, queen mother of France. On loan from the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, the tapestries are on view for the first time in North America and exclusively at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The elegant black-tie affair included cocktails and dinner in the Ames Family Atrium. Trumpeters heralded the official opening of the exhibition as Cleveland Museum of Art director William Griswold joined in a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries; Contessa Maria Vittoria Colonna Rimbotti, president of Friends of the Uffizi; and chairwomen Diann Scaravilli and Ellen Stirn Mavec, also a CMA trustee.

Also in attendance were presenting sponsors Joyce and Bill Litzler; Barbara and Richard Lubinski, on behalf of the Textile Art Alliance; supporting sponsors Mary Jo Zingale and Cathy Lincoln; and Howard Freedman, chair of corporate giving.

The evening’s vice chairs included Patricia Brownell, Sally Gries, Marguerite Humphrey, Ginny Lindseth, Katherine O’Neill, Jane Outcalt, Madeleine Parker, and K.K. Sullivan. STORY BY JULIE EVANS, DONOR AND MEMBER COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART/PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIE HAHN, COURTESY OF THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART