The Corcoran Gallery of Art’s 19th-century Beaux-Arts buildingwas the perfect backdrop for its 46th annual ball, themedthe “Golden Age of the Corcoran” on April 20th. Record-settingcrowds visited the museum this past year, and inFebruary, America Online executives Robert Pittman andBarry Schuler pledged a record-setting donation of $30 million,the largest single gift in the gallery’s history. The donationhas been earmarked for a planned addition by world-renownedarchitect Frank Gehry, whose design will beunveiled later this spring. (A projected ground breaking isplanned for 2003.) The uniquely decorated galleries includeda “cowhide” gallery with cow prints, white-and-black hidetablecloths, black roses and white lilies, and one that featuredWayne Thiebaud’s prints of cakes on the wall with centerpiecesof real cakes decorated with tea roses, violets, and othertiny flowers. Dinner guests sipped delectable red wine fromChile’s Santa Rita Vineyard, which had been donated by theChilean Embassy.