Who's That on the Un Lawn? Madonna Fundraiser Runs Into Trouble

The menu consisted, of course, of sea bass and champagne. Paying guests mixed with journalists and an improbably high number of celebrities from the top end of the A list, including Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Sting. Huge sums far into six figures were being spent with happy abandon on auction lots, including an aerobics class with Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna, and a trip to Château Latour, including lunch with Salma Hayek, which was bought by Donald Trump.

In short, Wednesday night's event in New York, hosted by Gucci and Madonna and dubbed A Night to Benefit Raising Malawi and Unicef, had all the usual ingredients of a particularly glitzy charity auction. But it had one added extra to make it stand out, although for unplanned reasons: it was held on the lawn of the UN headquarters.

Critics have questioned whether hosting a corporate charity fund raiser is the best use of the UN's grounds, especially when it was tied to the opening this week of a Manhattan Gucci store, as inaugurations of designer stores are not traditionally cause for celebration at the UN.

Mark Lee, the chief executive of Gucci, which underwrote the whole event, claimed the timing of the party and the store opening was a coincidence.

Madonna, who has been bringing up a Malawian orphan for the past two years, dismissed all criticism, claiming "there's always controversy surrounding anything that involves change".

Amidst all the celebrities and the guests at the event there was one notable absence: the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

He said on Tuesday that he understood the proceeds would "be used for a proper purpose as agreed between Unicef and the organizers".

However, on Wednesday Ki-moon's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, told the website of the non-profit organization Inner City Press: "Gucci went a little too far." He said the secretary general had planned to attend, but now "he's a little worried".

In an unfortunately prescient comment in the fashion magazine The Daily, published the day of the party, Gucci's creative director, Frida Giannini, admitted that she was surprised the UN had allowed them to hold the event there.

"When our PR team proposed it I didn't think it would be possible," she said. "I mean, why would they let some stupid fashion party inside the United Nations?"

She quickly added: "I think I misunderstood the magnitude of the charity and the cause."

There was certainly a magnitude of money. Tickets for the event were reportedly being sold for as much as $2,500 (about £1,280) and Lee said $3.7m was raised in ticket sales alone.

The aerobics class with Madonna and Paltrow was sold for $600,000, which probably doesn't happen every day on the UN lawn.