Photo credit: Pirosmani. 1969. Directed by Giorgi Shengelaia. Courtesy of National Archives of Georgia

Cinephiles' Paradise

Take “dinner and a movie” to a whole new level when you and up to thirty to guests enjoy a private film screening at BAMPFA, followed by a scrumptious dinner. With a BAMPFA film curator as your personal advisor, choose the film you and your guests will enjoy in BAMPFA's intimate Theater 2. After the screening, Senior Film Curator Susan Oxtoby will join you for a delectable, chef-prepared meal, sharing insights that will surely spark a lively discussion as you dine and relax with your friends. 

Minimum bid: $3,000

Donated by BAMPFA. To be scheduled on a mutually agreeable date and take place by May 17, 2019.

La Dolce Vita in Umbria

Live the sweet life with a week’s holiday at a historic Italian farmhouse overlooking the valleys and vineyards of the Umbria region—the “Green Heart” of Italy. The package includes a seven-night stay for eight at La Quercia, a 15th-century rustic farmhouse with modern amenities, including an infinity swimming pool. During your stay, you will enjoy dinner prepared by a private chef and a custom two-day activity, which will be facilitated by Journey Through Italy—well-known Italian tour guides with decades of experience leading small, personalized, and delicious walking tours throughout the region.

Your two-day activity will focus on hiking, biking, cultural excursions, artisan and food visits, or some combination of the above, based on your preferences. Hiking and biking days will include a lovely picnic lunch in the countryside; cultural days will be planned around a midday lunch in a trattoria, farm, or vineyard.

Minimum bid: $5,000

Donated by the Simpson Family and Carla Crane. Dates subject to availability. Expires May 17, 2019.

Four-Course Feast with Charles Phan

In the gracious surroundings of artist Catherine Wagner’s San Francisco studio, you and fourteen guests will enjoy a four-course meal personally prepared by Charles Phan. Renowned for his California-fresh, modern Vietnamese cuisine, Phan is the James Beard Award-winning chef and owner of the Slanted Door, rated among San Francisco’s top restaurants.

Minimum bid: $7,000

Donated by Charles Phan and Catherine Wagner. To be scheduled on a mutually agreeable date and take place by October 31, 2018.

Photo Credits: UC Berkeley, James Kegley, eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd., Roy Kaltschmidt, LBNL

UC Berkeley “Flash Diploma”

The fastest, most impressive diploma on earth! You and your smartest friend are the students for this series of one-hour private seminars with three of UC Berkeley’s most illustrious professors:

• Judith Butler, a philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminist, queer, and literary theory.
• Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, won the Nobel Prize in 2011 for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe.
• Randy Schekman, a cell biologist, won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2013 for his role in revealing the machinery that regulates the transport and secretion of proteins in our cells.

Upon completion of the syllabus, you will receive a unique Flash Diploma designed by artists David Wilson and Alexander Kori Girard and printed in BAMPFA’s Fisher Family Art Lab.

Minimum Bid: $6,000

Donated by Judith Butler, Saul Perlmutter, Randy Schekman, David Wilson, and Alexander Kori Girard. To be scheduled on mutually agreeable dates and take place by December 31, 2018. The seminars do not need to take place on the same day.

Image credit: Courtesy of Chatsworth

Tour Chatsworth House with the Duke of Devonshire

Enjoy an exclusive private tour of Chatsworth House, home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire for sixteen generations, since 1549. You and up to five friends will join the Duke for a personally guided tour through the stately house. There are more than thirty stunning rooms; from the magnificent Painted Hall and regal State Rooms to the restored Sketch Galleries and beautiful Sculpture Gallery, which houses treasures by master sculptors including Canova and Rysbrack.

Chatsworth contains works of art that span 4,000 years, from ancient Roman and Egyptian sculpture and masterpieces by Rembrandt, Reynolds, and Veronese to work by outstanding modern and contemporary artists, including Lucian Freud, Edmund de Waal, and David Nash.

Begin or end your visit to Chatsworth with lunch for your lucky group hosted by Sotheby's at the Stables or in one of the nearby Devonshire pubs.

Minimum Bid: $10,000

Donated by Sotheby’s. To be scheduled on a mutually agreeable date and take place by December 31, 2019.

The Real Larry Rinder

Join the gala honoree for a weekend in beautiful Mendocino County. Larry will host you and a friend for a salon-style meal at his Ukiah ranch with special artist and musician guests. Continue your unique weekend with an insider’s tour of Larry’s favorite Mendo sights, and relax with two nights’ accommodation at Hopland’s newly refurbished historic Thatcher Hotel.

Minimum Bid: $5,000

Donated by Lawrence Rinder and Thatcher Hotel. To be scheduled on a mutually agreeable date between June 1, 2018 and June 1, 2019.

Photo credit: Zach Hilty/BFA

New York with Fran and Christie’s

The dinner-table conversation is bound to be interesting with the incomparable Fran Lebowitz as your dining companion! Subject of a recent film by Martin Scorsese, Lebowitz is an essayist and public speaker whose sardonic prose has been compared to Dorothy Parker’s. This once-in-a-lifetime New York experience continues for you and your guest with two nights’ accommodation at Ann Hatch’s Astor Place apartment designed by Paul Discoe.

You'll also visit Christie's, where a senior specialist from the department of your choosing—including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewelry, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more—takes you and your guest on a private behind-the-scenes tour of the Christie's New York offices, with sneak peeks at upcoming auctions and events. The specialist will host you for a catered lunch in the galleries or at a nearby restaurant.

Minimum Bid: $8,000

Donated by Fran Lebowitz, Christie’s, and Ann Hatch. No children and no pets. Must be scheduled on a mutually agreeable date and take place by December 31, 2018. Christie’s recommends the best time to visit is during their fall season, which runs from mid-September through mid-December.

Photo credit: Amanda Marsalis

A Foodie Fantasy

You’ll be unlikely to find either company or cuisine to match the experience you and three friends will have as you dine with Berkeley star-couple Michael Pollan and Judith Belzer downstairs at Alice Waters’s world-renowned Chez Panisse. Michael is one of America’s most celebrated authors (Omnivore’s Dilemma, Botany of Desire, Cooked) and Judith is an artist whose work is currently on view at BAMPFA in the exhibition Way Bay.

Minimum Bid: $5,000

Donated by Michael Pollan, Judith Belzer, and Chez Panisse. Dinner for four in the Restaurant at Chez Panisse includes a wine pairing. Limited to Monday–Thursday evenings. Seatings are at 5:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. To be scheduled on a mutually agreeable date and take place by December 31, 2018.

Image credit: Courtesy of Napa Valley Reserve

Napa Valley Reserve Tour and Lunch

Welcome to the Napa Valley Reserve, a private club for people who “share a passion for wine and the way of life that surrounds it.” You and three friends will enjoy a tour of the winery and vineyard, followed by lunch in the private dining room with members Simon and Emilie Baker.

Minimum bid: $1,000

Donated by Simon and Emilie Baker. To be scheduled on a mutually agreeable date by May 17, 2019.

Photo Credit: Metropolitan Opera  

Metropolitan Opera Tickets

You won't even need your opera glasses as you and a friend enjoy a thrilling performance from your seats in the prime orchestra section of the Metropolitan Opera House during the 2018-19 season. Choose from the following performances: 

• October 12, 2018 La Fanciulla del West
• November 2, 2018 Tosca
• November 23, 2018 Il Trittico
• December 14, 2018 Otello
• January 11, 2019 Aida
• February 8, 2019 Carmen
• February 22, 2019 Falstaff
• March 1, 2019 Rigoletto
• April 12, 2019 Don Giovanni

Minimum Bid: $500

Donated by the Metropolitan Opera.

Bill Owens

United States, b. 1938
Tuo-Tuo our dog, is a very expensive household pet. It costs 30 cents a day to feed him‚ that's $109 a year—and $14 a month to have him groomed—that's $155 a year—not including the vet bill. We spend over $350 a year, but we don't care. We love him.
1971
Vintage gelatin silver print
10 x 8 in.

Published in Suburbia, 1972 and 1999 editions

Market value: $6,000
Minimum bid: $2,000

In addition to this charming photograph, you and a guest will enjoy lunch with the artist Bill Owens at Babette cafe at BAMPFA. You will also receive a signed copy of Suburbia.

Donated by Robert Shimshak and Bill Owens.

Tauba Auerbach

United States, born 1981
[2,3]
2011
Paper, ink, binder's board, glue, fabric, silk screen
20 ¾ x 16½ x 4 ½ inches   
Publisher: the artist and Printed Matter, New York
Fabricator: Toppan Excel (Hong Kong) Limited
Edition of 1,000
Signed and numbered on card insert

Tauba Auerbach’s oversize pop-up book contains six die-cut, geometric paper sculptures; its pages unfold to reveal a gold-and-white ziggurat, a pyramid composed of nesting triangles, a sphere of intersecting paper circles, and elegant latticed arches.

Market value: $7,500
Minimum Bid: $5,000

Donated by Anonymous.

Jaffe, Lee

United States, born 1950
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1983 (digitally printed 2005)
Photograph
18 x 12 in.
Portfolio of 15 matted color photographs, title page, and colophon in red silk box. Ultra Chrome archival ink on Arches Infinity Smooth paper, printed using Epson Stylus Pro 4000 printer; edition 66/70.

Market value: $12,500
Minimum Bid: $5,000

Gift of Fred and Winter Hoffman

Squeak Carnwath

United States born 1947

Long Enough

1999

Color sugarlift, spitbite, soap ground aquatint, hard ground and soft ground etching

18 x 17 in.

Edition of 30

Market value: $1,500

Minimum bid: $1,000

Gift of Renee Bott