A MOCA soiree with a silver glow

“I can’t believe it’s been 25 years,” said billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, holding his own amid a crush of art aficionados at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s silver anniversary gala. “I remember the press conference when we announced all of this.”

With a one-night-only exhibit of 25 masterworks from its 5,000-piece permanent collection, MOCA was celebrating its place as “the preeminent contemporary art museum in the United States,” said trustee Susan Bay-Nimoy. On view: works by Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Piet Mondrian, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella and Sam Francis.

Like other art institutions that have struggled financially in recent years, the museum has survived because of the largess of its board of trustees, Bay-Nimoy observed. “Without the trustees, there would be no museum,” she said. “We carry the lion’s share of the budget -- this year, $10 million -- and that’s the reality.” Raising funds is a challenge for MOCA because of its downtown location, she added. “We don’t have the kind of traffic you have at MOMA, for example, or LACMA.” She estimated proceeds from the May 15 event, chaired by trustee Jane F. Nathanson, to be “in the $1-million range.”

Guests arriving at the alfresco party at the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo strolled along a plush carpet in the vivid shade of blue popularized by artist Yves Klein, party producer Benjamin Bourgeois noted. Explained a MOCA staffer: “Klein used nude women covered in blue paint to create a series of artworks. They dragged their bodies around the canvases.”

Sipping cool ones under the Frank Gehry canopy, guests sampled appetizers by Patina -- skewered chicken with plantain, ahi in a sesame cone -- and buzzed about the importance of the museum to the city. “The arts are not a luxury. They bring economic benefits to the area,” actor Leonard Nimoy said. “When MOCA does a show, people travel here, use hotels and restaurants.” Observed MOCA director Jeremy Strick: “Twenty-five years is a short time for a museum. Our biggest accomplishment is the reputation and focus we’ve brought to L.A.”

Guests toured the gala exhibit in one series of galleries before enjoying a sit-down dinner of aged strip loin, asparagus risotto, sorbet -- and blue anniversary cake -- in another. Surveying the works, actress Jacqueline Bisset, on the arm of longtime boyfriend martial artist Emin Boztepe, pronounced the 1949 Pollock drip painting not to her liking. “I’m enthralled by art,” she said, “and I can see Pollock’s value in terms of the evolution of painting and his contribution. But I’m not actually a lover of it.”

Leaving the exhibit, guest David Alden spotted something that made his eyes pop: a plasma TV in the corner of the gallery showing the Lakers playing the San Antonio Spurs. “Oh, good!” he said, stopping dead. “I’m surprised the crowd is out there,” he added, nodding toward guests who remained in the reception area, “and not in here.”