The 2026 Met Gala Welcomes Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos

Ahead of the 2026 Met Gala fundraising gala, formally known as the Costume Institute Benefit held at and in the interest of Metropolitan Museum of Art’s curatorial department known as the Costume Institute, the museum issued a press release announcing the co-chairs, and Honorary Chairs of the extravagant benefit on May 4.

Quietly placed at the end of a long list of names in the press release from February 23 is the announcement that as Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are the lead sponsoring unit for the both the Gala and a following exhibition in the Costume Institute, they are categorized as Honorary Chairs for the night.

“The exhibition and benefit are made possible by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos,” states the press release.

This sentence is at the end of a long paragraph reciting the names of the official co-chairs, Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour, in addition to the names of 24 members of the “Gala Host Committee.”

The members of the committee serve to act as ambassadors for the event, help curate the guest list and generally promote the event through their statuses.

If you aren’t reading the paragraph closely, you might miss the detail regarding the Bezos’s at the end.

This is the first time the Met Gala is explicitly designating the Bezos’ with a public chair title, drawing attention to their role.

This announcement drew criticism, with protesters labeling this year’s Met Gala as the “Amazon Prime Gala,” or “Bezos Ball,” according to an article by the New York Times.

The direct-action group Rise and Resist organized a protest outside of the museum on the day of the gala.

Anna Wintour, who formally gave up her title as Vogue’s editor-in-chief last year, but remains Vogue’s global chief content officer at Condé Nast, the American mass media company that owns publishes Vogue, oversaw the 2026 Met Gala.

In response to criticism surrounding the Bezos’ role as sponsors for the fundraiser, Wintour told CNN that she believed Sánchez Bezos to be “wonderful asset to the museum and the event.”

“We’re very grateful for her incredible generosity,” Wintour tells CNN.

Wintour’s embrace of the Bezos’ signifies how it may not matter to the fashion and art world where the money is coming from, even it is from titans of Silicon Valley like the Amazon founder or the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who attended the Met Gala but did not appear on the carpet.

The contributions from the richest people in the world help to fund the effort to preserve art and initiate the development of new exhibitions in museums.

Max Hollein, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s director and chief executive officer, told CNN he saw the fundraising gala as part of a “history of American philanthropy.”

“We will always be grateful for that support from various different sources,” said Hollein.

University of Wisconsin-Madison third-year student Vinessa Verheyen, who is studying information systems, shared her thoughts about the involvement of the Bezos’ with the 2026 Met Gala, stating how she notices the presence of Amazon and other large companies in every corner of culture.

She admits the importance of these donations to museums, even if the philanthropic contributions come from Silicon Valley figures who are making moves to monopolize markets.

“The upper class should use their income to support artists and creativity,” she said.

“Being involved with tech companies shouldn’t bar people from supporting art,” says Verheyen, “but thinking through the lens of how art experiences change as a result of a capitalistic culture is important, too.”