Mr. Frick was a great collector of European art, and after he died, the mansion was turned into a museum. The Virtue vs. Vice benefit was in the Living Hall, a large, oak-paneled room laid with a Persian carpet and displaying paintings by major sixteenth-century artists such as El Greco, Holbein, and Titian. At the middle of one wall stood one of Soldani's bronze sculptures, Virtue Triumphant over Vice, and in the center of each of the huge round tables set for the party with cream-colored linens and sparkling silver stood a ten-inch-high replica of the same sculpture, surrounded by a garland of purple tulips. Not that anyone was paying any attention to the art. Women in custom-made couture gowns and men in tuxedos milled around the tables or stood by the bar, nibbling plum-dipped duck fritters and talking about everything except art. “Did you see the van der Woodsen girl in that new perfume advertisement?”
