Sacre Bleu! It's the Louvre Inc.

Led by a controversial visionary, the world's favorite museum is learning the American art of mixing business with culture

Pascal Le Segretain / Getty

The Pyramide of the Louvre museum

Even by her own standards, the black-tie gala that Houston socialite Becca Cason Thrash organized in Paris on June 10 was exceptional. The 272 guests, who paid up to $10,000 each to attend, included a smattering of European royalty, Bianca Jagger, Wall Street grandees Wilbur Ross and Stephen Schwarzman and the cream of Houston high society. Cason Thrash flew her Los Angeles decorator in and says she was so nervous about the arrangements that "by 6 p.m., I was looking for a cyanide capsule." This wasn't any old fund raiser: it was held for the Louvre, in the Louvre, in the...

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