“I knew we needed a lady — preferably a French-speaking lady — and maybe even an immigrant herself for the role,” Mr. Briganti said during a toast at the event. Then Diane allowed me to come and talk to her in New York. Thank God she said ‘yes.’ She is the godmother of the Statue of Liberty.”For the Brussels-born Ms. von Furstenberg, who previously helped raise money for the High Line park in Manhattan, a trip to Paris was important for the new museum. “Lady Liberty,” Ms. von Furstenberg said in her speech at the party, “is a Frenchwoman who came to America and presented a nation with ideas around true freedom. I’m so grateful to the French people for bringing the Statue of Liberty into Americans’ lives.” The designer, added that she had long felt a connection to the statue because her mother, a Holocaust survivor, had often called Ms. von Furstenberg “her torch of freedom.”

Source: New York Times February 28, 2019 14:55 UTC