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# The Surrealist Ball
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/bal-siurrealistov/
- Published: 2026-03-22T12:03:21.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:26:32.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Aristocracy, Art, Observations, Mores, Paris, Pop Culture

Hosted by Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and her husband Baron Guy de Rothschild at their family estate, the Château de Ferrières in Seine-et-Marne, France.

The dress code, written in mirror script, read: "Black tie, long dresses and surrealist heads".

As the guests arrived, searchlights played over the château so that it seemed engulfed in flames. They were then led through a labyrinth of cobwebs and ribbons, full of surprises. The footmen and servants were dressed as cats, and mewed and scratched.

The hostess set upon her head a stuffed stag with diamond tears. Audrey Hepburn came with a wicker birdcage on her head. Count and Countess Cheremeti appeared with the heads of rhinoceroses. The French Minister of Culture, Michel Guy, arrived with a dagger in his skull. The perfumer Hélène Rochas wore a gramophone on her head.

The tablecloths were painted with clouds in the manner of Magritte, and the napkins embroidered with the lips of Dalí's "Mae West Lips Sofa". The plates were covered in mink fur. In place of cutlery, dead fish lay on the tables. The bread was green. Dessert was a sugar sculpture of a naked woman on rose petals.

Probably everyone has heard of this at least once, or read about it. Why am I publishing this photograph? Because, under some ancient agreement, evil does all its deeds in the open and goes on ruling on condition that people see it and consent to it themselves. And the Rothschilds, in principle, hide nothing about themselves either; it is simply all staged in such a way that to see it and to say so is equated with madness.