奇速英语

路易·威登集团掌门人承诺捐赠2亿欧元帮助重建巴黎圣母院

France’s richest man has pledged €200 million (£170 million) towards the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, doubling the donation of Salma Hayek’s husband. Billionaire Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH luxury goods group, instantly became the biggest benefactor of an appeal launched by President Emmanuel Macron.
On Monday—the day of the blaze—French tycoon Francois-Henri Pinault, who is married to Hollywood actress Salma Hayek, pledged 100 million euros (£86.2 million) towards the rebuilding of the Cathedral. But, in a statement, the LVMH group said their donation would be double that. It said, “The Arnault family and the LVMH group are associated with the reconstruction of this extraordinary cathedral, symbol of France, its heritage and its unity. In the meantime, the LVMH Group puts all its teams, creative, architectural, financial, at the disposal of the state and the concerned authorities to help the long hard work of reconstruction on the one hand, and of fund-raising on the other hand.”
France’s Heritage Foundation has launched a “national collection” on its website. And Valerie Pecresse, president of the Ile-de-France region, has planned a budget of 10 million euros of emergency aid to help to start the work. Ms Pecresse added, “This reconstruction will obviously be very expensive.”
Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, said she wanted to organise an international conference of donors to welcome experts who are able to raise funds. Specialised craftsmen and rare materials are expected to be needed to restore the monument, which welcomes more than 13 million visitors each year—an average of more than 35,000 people a day.
The head of a French lumber company told FranceInfo radio that it was ready to offer the best oak beams that supported the now-destroyed roof. “The work will surely take years, decades even, but it will require thousands of cubic metres of wood. We’ll have to find the best specimens, with large diameters,” Sylvain Charlois of the Charlois group in Murlin, central France said.