FilmFest: charity event raises $1.35 million for AIDS research

By Leah Rieger

ROME, Oct. 28 - A charity auction for the funding of AIDS research raised over $1 million on Friday night at a celebrity-filled event that included some John Cabot University student volunteers.

“Romans, lend me your wallets,” Sharon Stone flirtatiously said to the rich and famous who were attending the "Cinema against Aids" benefit organized by the American Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR. The event was held in conjunction with the Rome Film Festival to raise money and awareness for AIDS research. 

According to the Associated Press, the event raised $1.35 million. Fendi hosted the event along with Stone, who stood in as the auctioneer.   

For the first time ever, Rome hosted the Cinema against AIDS. The event took place in the trendy Spazio Etoile in the Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina, with the after party across the street at Palazzo Fendi.  Previous events of amfAR took place at Sundance, Venice, and Cannes. 

Guest included the twin brothers from Dsquared, Dan and Dean, Mira Sorvino, Leonardo DiCaprio’s former Israeli flame Bar Refaeli, the Fendi creators, representatives from Vanity Fair and many other established guests from the world of fashion, music, business and the international society pages.

For the auction, a Fendi-designed white "baguette" handbag went for $60,000 to Dsquared. The brothers also purchased a Special Limited bottle of Hennessey Cognac for $20,000.   

Other items that were auctioned was a Versace dress that sold for $20,000, Vanity Fair pictures of Stone that sold for $25,000, a Hotel Cortes CD case filled with CDs from the DJ at Palazzo Fendi, equipped with DJ lessons, which went for $11,000. The highest item at the auction was donated from the artist Francesco Vezzoli, which went for $140,000.

Stone welled up with tears when an American in the front row offered her $50,000 for the necklace around her neck. Stone later explained that the sponsorship of a single doctor researching AIDS is $50,000.