NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - Financial industry

heavyweights convened in New York last week to raise funds for a

finance museum that has lost its iconic Wall Street address.

At the Museum of American Finance gala, billionaire Ken

Griffin welcomed attendees on enormous video screens in

Manhattan's art deco-style Ziegfeld Ballroom. Mark Carney, chair

of Brookfield Asset Management and ex-Bank of England governor,

honored former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida.

JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo bought tables.

"The philosopher Santayana said: those who are ignorant of

history are doomed to repeat it," Howard Marks, billionaire

co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, told Reuters before he

received an award. "This is equally true in the investment

business: those who are ignorant of history are doomed to lose

money and/or miss opportunity."

The 455 attendees raised $1.5 million for the museum. Yet

its collection -- which includes a bond signed by George

Washington, a ticker tape from the 1929 stock market crash and

early examples of U.S. currency -- languishes in temporary

storage in Georgia after spending several years in the Queens

borough of New York City.

At the gala, guests dined on burrata and braised beef short

rib. They murmured in appreciation when a bond for the Louisiana

purchase -- which doubled the size of the U.S. -- was projected

onto the jumbo screens. A reference to President Ronald Reagan

got a smattering of applause.

Carney shared a lesson from his time at Goldman Sachs.

"If someone in our industry explains something to you... and

that explanation doesn't make sense to you, ask them to repeat

it -- and if it still doesn't make sense, walk away," he said.

"When feigned knowledge masks real ignorance, that leads to

panic."

Clarida, who serves as a professor at Columbia University

and advises asset manager PIMCO, expressed pride in the Fed's

pandemic response as he received an award.

"The Fed acted decisively and expansively in the spring of

that year to prevent what could well have spiraled downwards

into an economic depression and financial crisis," he said. "The

Fed's nimble and creative response to the pandemic collapse

represents the Fed at its best."

Like many other businesses, the finance museum suffered

during the Covid-19 pandemic after facing other setbacks.

Its previous home at 48 Wall Street was itself a part of

financial history, serving as the original headquarters of the

Bank of New York founded by Alexander Hamilton. The museum

opened in 2008 on the eve of the global financial crisis.

Since then, its objects and documents have had a long

journey. In 2018, they were displaced when a burst pipe damaged

the museum's three floors, including its grand exhibition hall.

Last summer, the collection was loaded into a tractor trailer

and transported from Queens to the Georgia archive.

"We haven't lost sight of the value of a physical location

for our museum," finance museum President and CEO David Cowen

told attendees. "We're in conversations about discounted or

donated space, but it's not too late -- if you'd like to house

this incredible museum, come and talk to us."

The museum still publishes a magazine, holds virtual

lectures and organizes events hosted in other spaces. It has an

eight-case traveling exhibition that can be rented to bring in

revenue.

While it awaits a permanent space, the museum has digitized

500 boxes containing 300,000 pages, while 835 of its objects

have also been processed by archivists.

Lina Lin, a freshman at Yale University who received a

scholarship from the museum, has never seen the exhibits in

person. Her interest in economics was sparked by taking the

museum's virtual personal finance course as a high school

student.

"My most surprising takeaway was the amount of people who

don't have access to financial education," Lin said. "I would

prefer a physical location just because it's more centralized...

it's more like a gathering place."