VIVA CLEMENTE!

The artist's return to Naples

V. F. CAMERA

A maritime mishap was followed by onshore success in a weekend devoted to painter Francesco Clemente's Neapolitan homecoming. On Friday evening, an engine fire on Barry Diller's boat drew the Italian Coast Guard, which gallantly rescued passengers Diane Von Furstenberg, Anh Duong, Anne McNally, Nona Summers, and Christian Louboutin. All arrived safely for the opening of Clemente's exhibition the next night at the fabled Archaeological Museum in Naples. Guests including Julian and Olatz Schnabel, Helen Marden, and Lauren Hutton celebrated prodigal son Clemente— who left Naples at age 18—over dinner in a vast restoration room, then toured the downstairs galleries where Clemente's paintings were hung. Lunch on Sunday, originally scheduled to take place on the Diller boat, was moved to the Naples Yacht Club, overlooking a Mediterranean that looked decidedly less perilous in the midday sun.

MICHAEL HOGAN