Nate Freeman

5 days ago | vanityfair.com | Nate Freeman

On Tuesday night, those seeking to snag a walk-in table at Balthazar were greeted with an unusual sign. Hung by the door at one of the most iconic French bistros to ever open in America was a note: “Closed for a Funeral.” Fair enough. And yet, if you peeked inside, those milling around were hardly in mourning attire, and there seemed to be quite a bit of celebratory champagne flowing, and hey…was that Alec Baldwin limping around?

1 week ago | vanityfair.com | Nate Freeman

At 9:30 a.m. sharp Monday, Max Hollein, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, took a podium at the museum’s Charles Engelbert Court to commence with the press preview for “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the show at the Costume Institute that forms the basis of the big fundraising gala thrown each year with Vogue and Anna Wintour, the global chief content officer of Condé Nast.

1 week ago | vanityfair.com | Nate Freeman

Every two years, the cultural exchange staffers at the State Department start the long journey that will end at the Venice Biennale’s United States Pavilion, the Palladian-style grand exhibition space in the middle of an art-filled garden in the city of canals. The event is often called the “Olympics of the Art World,” and appropriately, the Giardini is filled with a pavilion for each country, spaces for exhibiting the work of a single artist chosen to represent their nation that year.

3 weeks ago | vanityfair.com | Nate Freeman

In December 2021, FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation agents arrived on the posh Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida, an island home to more than 60 billionaires, to raid a gallery called Danieli Fine Art. FBI agents stormed the premises, covered the windows with brown paper, and answered very few questions. As it turned out, the gallery’s owner, Daniel Elie Bouaziz, had sold an undercover agent what he said was a legit Jean-Michel Basquiat for $12 million.

1 month ago | vanityfair.com | Nate Freeman

President Donald Trump wasn’t always at loggerheads with the museums that make up the Smithsonian Institute. In February 2017, he arrived at the brand-new National African American Museum of History and Culture for a tour with its director, Lonnie G. Bunch III, and told Bunch he’d been looking forward to it. His wife, Melania, had recently toured the museum with the first lady of Israel, Sara Netanyahu.