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One of the best known — and most controversial — museums in the world is all set to host a gala dinner for London’s rich and famous. The British Museum is opening its doors for a fundraising ball on October 18 in a move many say rivals the Met Gala held at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The event coincides with the closing weekend of the museum’s Ancient India exhibit, an exploration of sacred art spanning over two centuries of Indian history. It has an “Indian pink” theme. Museum Director Nicholas Cullinan will co-chair the ball alongside Indian heiress Isha Ambani.

On the committee of the ball are filmmaker Steve McQueen, actors Kristin Scott Thomas, Idris Elba and Sonam Kapoor, designers Roksanda Ilincic and Sabyasachi Mukherjee, artists Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry, and authors Zadie Smith and Elif Shafak,The Telegraph reported. Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the head of Qatar’s museums and a sister of the Gulf state’s ruler is also a member of the organising committee. Legendary sitarist Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka Shankar will be part of the evening’s entertainment programme.

An image of the invitation for the event was shared on Instagram by Nathan Clements-Gillespie, a member of the organising committee.

The Times reports tickets for the event will cost £2,000 ($2,695) per seat, with a 10-seat table available for £20,000 ($26,953). A far cry from the $75,000 (£55,652) it can cost to attend the Met Gala, the event is still expected to generate £1.6 million ($2.16 million) from its 800 ticketed seats. In addition to ticket sales, the museum will run a silent auction through dinner, with the proceeds going towards funding the museum’s international collaborations.

Cullinan, who has previously worked at the Met, told The Telegraph he wasn’t inspired by the Met Gala as much as he was by the London Olympics and the events he had organised at London’s National Portrait Gallery. He said tickets to the ball had already sold out.

The director emphasised the need for such an event, citing the eye-watering costs of maintaining the museum. The Western Range galleries, a major section of the Museum housing exhibits from Greece, Rome, Assyria and the Middle East, is in need of renovations to the tune of £1 billion ($1.3bn). Cullinan said “the roof is going to fall through” if the renovations aren’t made. Funds from the ball, however, will not be used for the renovations, he added.

The positive coverage this event generates for the British Museum is a rarity nowadays, as the institution is embroiled in a number of controversies, including the theft of several items, which was announced in 2023. The origins of many of the artefacts in the museum’s collection and how they got to London are also a matter of contention, with many of the treasures reaching Britain as part of colonial plunder.