In the days before the second annual British Museum Ball,, there was plenty of chatter about the event: who would be there; what everyone would be wearing; how exactly the artist Es Devlin would transform the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, said to be the largest enclosed room in Europe. It helped that Frieze London and Frieze Masters opened Wednesday, injecting a jolt of art mania into Regent’s Park.

Then on Friday came the news that the British Museum had received a gift of £30 million (around $40 million) from “a single, long-standing supporter,” money independent of the funds being raised by the gala that would go to support renovations known as the Masterplan—a massive undertaking a press release described as “one of the greatest cultural redevelopment projects being undertaken anywhere in the world.”

As the ball began Saturday, 850 figures from the worlds of art, fashion, film and British society arrived in Bloomsbury—including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a co-chair of the event, and Mick Jagger, who took the stage at the event to proclaim, “All of us here tonight are the custodians of this wonderful museum. We hope to continue and inspire generations of artists, inventors, historians and new Mozarts.” (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart famously visited the British Museum when he was a nine-year-old prodigy, presenting the institution with a motet he composed, in English, while in London.) Benedict Cumberbatch and Jude Law were also on hand.

The two stars performed a version of “Letters Live,” an epistolary routine in which each actor read from a series of correspondence.

Devlin’s installations included three large-scale sculptural interventions, one of which paid homage to the Bayeux Tapestry, on view at the British Museum after a truly herculean loan agreement with France. Following dinner, Wyclef Jean performed.

For those in town to soak up the art and culture at Frieze London, this was a pretty spectacular way to wind up the week. “At the heart of everything we do is our ambition to make the British Museum more welcoming, and inspiring for everyone,” said Sir Nicholas Cullinan, director of the museum. “And this evening has been a wonderful celebration of that shared vision.”

Micky Down and Diana Agron

Erin O'Connor and Alexander Chappell

Adwoa Aboah

Edward Holcroft, Edward Enninful and Marchioness of Bath Emma Thynn

Dianna Agron

Adot Gak

Peggy Gou, Wyclef Jean, and Sophia Pasetti

Benedict Cumberbatch and Jude Law

Sadiq Khan and Bianca Jagger

Philip Treacey and Natasha Lyonne

Gwendoline Christine and Dr Nicholas Cullinan

Charlotte Gainsbourg