amfAR, the AIDS research foundation formed in 1985, held its first London gala at The Chancery Rosewood in 2025, honouring Tracey Emin and raising $2.1 million.
amfAR brought its gala to London for the first time on Friday 17 October 2025, at the newly opened Chancery Rosewood in Grosvenor Square, in the week of Frieze London and the London Film Festival.
The American Foundation for AIDS Research was formed by researchers and advocates in 1985. Early studies of the protease enzyme, which it backed the following year, helped spur protease inhibitors, the class of drugs that transformed the treatment of HIV. By the London gala it had raised nearly $950 million and awarded more than 3,800 grants to research teams worldwide, and it is now one of the largest funders of the search for a cure.
Joely Richardson hosted, and spoke about her father, Tony Richardson, the director of Tom Jones, who died of AIDS. Kyle Clifford, amfAR’s incoming chief executive, told the room that he is HIV-positive himself. Nearly all of the 113,000 people living with HIV in Britain are on treatment, while around 6,000 more are diagnosed each year.
Dame Tracey Emin received the Award of Inspiration and Natasha Poonawalla the Philanthropic Leadership Award. Simon de Pury led the auction, where Emin’s Twilight sold for £450,000. Jess Glynne opened the night with Rather Be, and Grace Jones closed it with La Vie en Rose and Slave to the Rhythm. The evening raised $2.1 million for amfAR’s research and advocacy programmes.