Bono's charity event raises $42 million

NEW YORK, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Singer Bono's (RED) charity reportedly raised more than $42 million through an art auction in New York to help battle AIDS in Africa.

Bono is the frontman for the Irish rock band U2.

Proceeds from the event at Sotheby's auction house Thursday night go to the Global Fund of the United Nations Foundation, People.com said.

"Tonight we're taking it to a whole new level," Bono told the magazine. "We have people giving all of their work away. … This is a pretty big night."

Martha Stewart, Russell Simmons, Ed Burn for the event.

Among the items sold was a medicine cabinet-themed work titled "Where There's a Will There's a Way" by British artist Damien Hirst. It went for $7.15 million, People.com said.

"Damien Hirst's medicine cabinet is so striking because he's made pills a centerpiece of his work for years. And now the idea that these pills have gone from being a work of art to providing real pills for people who will die without them is very poetic to me," Bono said.