Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Small Donors, Not French Tycoons, Help Pay Notre Dame Works

Associated Press

   PARIS - The billionaire French donors who publicly proclaimed they
   would give hundreds of millions to rebuild Notre Dame have not yet paid
   a penny toward the restoration of the French national monument,
   according to church and business officials.

   Instead, it's mainly American and French individuals, via Notre Dame
   charitable foundations, that are behind the first donations paying the
   bills and salaries for up to 150 workers employed by the cathedral
   since the April 15 fire that devastated its roof and caused its
   masterpiece spire to collapse. This month they are handing over the
   first private payment for the cathedral's reconstruction of 3.6 million
   euros ($4 million).

   "The big donors haven't paid. Not a cent," said Andre Finot, senior
   press official at Notre Dame. "They want to know what exactly their
   money is being spent on and if they agree to it before they hand it
   over, and not just to pay employees' salaries."

   Almost $1 billion was promised by some of France's richest and most
   powerful families and companies, some of whom sought to outbid each
   other, in the hours and days after the inferno. It prompted criticism
   that the donations were as much about the vanity of the donors wishing
   to be immortalized in the edifice's fabled stones than the preservation
   of France's church heritage.

   Francois Pinault of Artemis, the parent company of Kering that owns
   Gucci and Saint Laurent, promised 100 million euros ($112 million),
   while Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of French energy company Total, said his
   firm would match that figure. Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury giant LVMH
   that owns Louis Vuitton and Dior, pledged 200 million euros ($224
   million), as did the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation of the L'Oreal
   fortune.

   None of that money has been seen, according to Finot, as the donors
   wait to see how the reconstruction plans progress and fight it out over
   contracts.

.