London charity dinner raises £28m
Bill Clinton made a speech. Prince rehearsed his sell-out concert. Madonna, the ultimate material girl, made an appeal.
The result was the most successful charity dinner in British history with £28 million raised in barely four hours at Marlborough House in Pall Mall, London.
Guests paid up to £100,000 for a table of 10 while raffle tickets were a more modestly priced £1,000. Each.
The dinner was organised by Absolute Return for Kids, founded by Arpad "Arki" Busson, the multi-millionaire French financier. The most expensive lot, a safari in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, fetched £480,000. A similar price was paid for a day on location with Daniel Craig, the James Bond actor.