The Prada dress and Gina shoes worn by Olga Kurylenko in the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, sold for £7,000 in a charity auction event to benefit the Muir Maxwell Trust. The “Casino Royale” event raised a total of £400,000 in the organization’s efforts to support to children and their families coping with severe epilepsy.
The event was held November 29 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.
From the Muir Maxwell Trust website:
Casino Royale, Edinburgh, 29th November
We are delighted to announce our very own Casino Royale night at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Edinburgh. With the support of Barbara Broccoli, producer of the Bond movies, 300 guests will enjoy an authentic Bond style event, playing MMT tables from 6pm until 3am with an array of fabulous prizes to be won including “Hearts on Fire Diamonds” donated by Laing the Jeweller, a weekend at the five star Abama golfing resort in Tenerife, a state of the art Pioneer Plasma TV screen donated by James Morrow, a trip to Hong Kong and even an award winning Toyota Prius which is our Texas Hold’em prize!
Guests will enjoy a cabaret style black tie dinner, comprising four courses prepared by Michelin star chef Martin Wishart and his team, whilst participating in a silent auction of “must have” autumn season designer handbags and listening to our stunning leading lady and new find, Aret. The evening will be hosted by “King of the Jungle” Christopher Biggins and news reader Angela Rippon , with celebrities attending in abundance. Rugby giant Martin Bayfield will conduct the grand auction featuring a £20,000 diamond and the diamond experience to Antwerp with Edinburgh jeweller Michael Laing, “that” Prada dress and “the” Gina shoes worn by Olga Kurylenko in Quantum of Solace, a dream holiday to Reethi Rah in the Maldives, the chance to train with Olympic Gold Medallist Chris Hoy and so much more.
Bond elements will feature throughout the night as MMT guests are updated on their new fundraising mission.
And…
On Saturday 29th November, 250 MMT supporters and celebrity guests including; Angela Rippon, Christopher Biggins and Martin Bayfield placed bids for 14 rare, unique and exclusive items including the very Prada dress and Gina shoes worn by Quantum of Solace beauty Olga Kurylenko, donated by the movie’s producer Barbara Broccoli, and a limited edition Omega watch as worn by Daniel Craig. Together these items alone raised £7,000
Additional items auctioned included;a stunning diamond valued at £20,000 donated by Edinburgh’s expert jeweller Michael Laing of Laing The Jeweller which reached £24,000, a further dress designed by Jenny Packham (designer of the Casino Royale dress) which was sold for £4,500, the chance to train with triple gold Olympic medal winner Chris Hoy which raised £5,500 and no less than 20 designer handbags packed full with luxury beauty products, the most desirable of which raised £7,000 at silent auction.
An additional 31 luxury prizes were won by guests in our after-dinner casino.
On the night Ann Maxwell said, “Difficult epilepsy in children is a complex condition that transcends health, education and welfare needs. Our paediatric neurologists do their very best but there is little or no back up from social services or educational psychology. No one has taken the time to properly assess the problem and identify the real and desperate needs of those children and their families.
Our Assessment Service, which will be launched in Scotland imminently and our plan to build a Paediatric Epilepsy and Respite Care Centre is our most exciting project since the Trust began. The impact of severe childhood epilepsy has a profound and devastating effect that can be unmanageable. Understanding and meeting these needs is essential if the difference we are making is to be for the long term. This Service is vital and the Paediatric Epilepsy and Respite Care Centre will be the icing on the cake.”
In time, MMT aims to extend the Assessment Service to the rest of the UK and consider the possibility of additional care centres. In the meantime, MMT remains committed to providing practical support to children with epilepsy and their families throughout the UK.
About The Muir Maxwell Trust
The Muir Maxwell Trust, a paediatric epilepsy charity, aims to make a difference by providing children and their carers with practical support and by speeding up what can be a frustratingly slow diagnostic process.
Though not a dedicated Helpline, we’re always on hand to give help and advice to those facing the challenges of caring for children with severe epilepsy.
There are more than 70,000 children with epilepsy in the UK, of which around 30,000 have uncontrolled epilepsy and 15,000 are chronic sufferers.
Children with difficult epilepsy can have learning difficulties, behavioural problems and in extreme cases severe developmental delay. Caring for a child with complex epilepsy is challenging, requiring twenty four hour care. The risk of death of a child with epilepsy whilst sleeping is significant. Constant sleep deprivation for parents is normal. The strain on the family is immense and many do not survive as a family unit.
In most cases, families have no one to turn to for help – such is the level of care in this country for the oldest disease known to man.
The Maxwells are one such family.
Ann and Jonny Maxwell have wrestled with 11-year-old Muir’s severe epilepsy since he was four months old, with little help and no one to turn to. In 2003, recognising this lack of support for children and their carers, they established The Muir Maxwell Trust (MMT).
From small beginnings in Ann’s study in their Edinburgh home, the Trust has emerged as one of the UK’s leading charities supporting paediatric epilepsy. In just five years, it has raised over £3.5m for child sufferers.
The Trust provides much needed practical support to children and their carers struggling to cope with this devastating condition, whilst raising awareness and understanding of childhood epilepsy.
It was also reported on The Living Scotsman (see Going, going BOND) that another Bond girl dress from Casino Royale was also being made available to the highest bidder:
The black Prada dress and Gina shoes won’t be the only items up for auction to have been touched by Bond magic. Also available to the highest bidder is the bespoke dress worn by Caterina Murino in 2006’s Casino Royale. This number is a coral silk, cowl-necked Jenny Packham dress and it’s particularly hot property – after this über-seductive frock appeared in the film, the phones at the designer’s boutiques rang off the hook, prompting Packham’s statement: “Just like every man wants to be James Bond, clearly every woman wants to be a Bond girl.”
I believe it might be the dress seen in the Japanese publicity poster (click for higher resolution)
I found no auction results for the second dress.
Jason De Bord