The Notre-Dame de Paris construction site is coming to an end. The five-year deadline for the restoration of the building was respected, in particular thanks to the exceptional donations which were paid, mainly by French billionaires.
The bet paid off. Notre-Dame de Paris will reopen its doors five years after the fire which ravaged the building. This Friday, November 29 marks the last site visit, in which the presidential couple, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the president of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati… opportunity to think about those who made this restoration possible: the donors. In all, 338,086 donors were listed, bringing together the exceptional sum of 846 million euros, according to the latest accounts from the public establishment Rebâtir Notre-Dame, as reported Release. In a report published in 2020, the Court of Auditors estimated that this amount was a world record in terms of donations, well beyond the previous record, which concerned the deadly tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 (328 million euros).
Concerning Notre-Dame, the amount collected even went beyond the means necessary for its restoration. 700 million euros were used during these five years, the rest of the amount collected will be used for future work. These 700 million euros were raised just with the donations of a handful of French billionaires, who signed very large checks. At the head of the donors, there is Bernard Arnault (fifth richest man in the world) and his company LVMH, and the Bettencourt Meyers family and its L’Oréal group. These two donors each signed a check for 200 million euros. The Pinault family (Artémis and Kering companies) as well as the Total group also generously participated with 100 million euros each. Other billionaires, like Bouygues or JC Decaux, have made donations of around ten million euros.
We still note the absence of Vincent Bolloré and Pierre-Édouard Stérin, two traditionalist Catholic billionaires, among the donors. No comment on the matter has been made by the two men, although those close to them point out that it is possible that they made anonymous donations.
The Americans donated 59 million euros
The French were not the only ones moved by the fire on April 15, 2019. The Americans also put their hands in their pockets to participate in the renovation of the building. In total, 62 million dollars (59 million euros) were raised, reports Cnews. It must be said that Notre-Dame de Paris is particularly present in American cinematographic representations of the French capital. The Walt Disney Company, whose animation studios notably produced “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Ratatouille”, made a donation of 5 million dollars (4.74 million euros).