Retirement dinner at the Sacher Hotel

The "reason" for our trip to Vienna was to celebrate the retirement of the Secretary General of the new IAA. I had recruited him some 15 years ago in late 1995.

The Executive Director of the IAA chose a private room in the elegant Hotel Sacher in which to have dinner. To reach the private dining room, we had to pass through a lounge decorated in what seemed to be red velvet covered furnishings.

Almost all IAA Past Presidents came to the dinner, most with their spouses. Shown in the group photo (behind the wine glass) are eleven of the Past Presidents, the retiring and incoming Secretary General and the Executive Director. Not shown in the picture are the slices of Sacher Tort that finished the meal.

In my remarks, I joked both that the retiring Secretary General had only taken seconds to consider whether or not to accept the position while the Executive Director had to give up her "first born child" to get her job (since she was recruited to take over the position shortly after finishing maternity leave).
On the way out of the hotel after dinner, we took the time to explore the side corridors. The Sacher (still patronized by the who's who in the art world) epitomizes 19th century elegance.