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UK's richest family held bizarre ball with animal masks and royals and inspired raunchy film

The Rothschild family are one of the wealthiest families in the world, and their legendary Surrealist Ball at Chteau de Ferrires remains one of the most extravagant parties ever thrown attended by Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot

[Chteau de Ferrires, venue of the 1972 Surrealist Ball]

Chteau de Ferrires, venue of the 1972 Surrealist Ball(Image: Wikipedia)

One British banking dynasty with the greatest private wealth in history staged a peculiar and eerie surrealist party, reportedly becoming the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

The vast Chteau de Ferrires hosted an extravagant and luxurious celebration orchestrated by Salvador Dali. A shattered headless infant doll, naked mannequins and living animal masks adorned with diamonds were created for one of the most disturbing themes ever thought up.

Audrey Hepburn appeared wearing a birdcage hat and there was an interactive labyrinth populated with butlers masquerading as cats, according to The Rake.

The mansion's exterior was lit up in red to create the illusion it was on fire. Staff were dressed as cats, scratching and frolicking with one another, or pretneding to sleep.

On arrival, guests were plunged into a labyrinth of spider webs where you could summon a cat servant to "assist" you, reports the Express.

[surrealist costumes at the ball]

Guests in surrealist costume at the ball hosted by Marie-Hlne de Rothschild(Image: Wikipedia)

It evolved into a renowned evening of indulgence with Yves Saint Laurent, Brigitte Bardot and Grace Kelly all present. Mysterious invitations were dispatched requesting attendees wear "black tie, long dresses & surrealist heads".

Nevertheless, the directions were printed in reverse so recipients had to decipher them using a mirror.

Eventually your feline-butler would escort you to supper, where dishes were draped in fur, tables adorned with stuffed tortoises and food presented on a mannequin cadaver on top of a bed of roses. The bill of fare featured "sir-loin" here, "extra-lucid" soup and goat's cheese roasted in "post-coital sadness".

Marie-Hlne herself wore an enormous stag's head adorned with diamond teardrops. Baron Alexis de Red sported a quadruple-layered four-masks-in-one creation decorated with scarab beetles, an Egyptian interpretation of Titian's Allegory of Prudence.

[Marie-Hlne at her wedding]

Marie-Hlne at her wedding to Count Franois de Nicolay(Image: Nationaal Archief)

Salvador Dal created several of the outfits, though chose not to wear one himself. Perfumer Hlne Rochas balanced a gramophone on top of her head.

In 1957, following a short marriage, the extravagantly titled Baroness Marie-Hlne Naila Stephanie Josina van Zuylen van Nyevelt van de Haar married her third cousin Guy de Rothschild.

Guy was breaking with family custom by choosing not to marry a Jewish bride and was forced to step down from his role as president of France's Jewish community, while Catholic Marie-Hlne required special papal permission.

Their home, Chateau de Ferrires, holds the title of France's most opulent nineteenth-century castle. After seeing his relative's striking Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, Guy's forebear Baron James de Rothschild instructed architect Joseph Paxton: "Build me a Mentmore, but twice the size".

It boasts a staggering 80 bedrooms, extensive woodland and a 120-foot principal hall featuring elaborate columns and sculptures crafted by Charles Cordier, alongside a library housing over eight thousand books and a neo-Renaissance Italian garden.

Three years after their extraordinary Surrealist Ball, the Rothschilds gifted the chteau to the chancellery of Paris's universities.

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