The mayor of Rome is flying to the
Saudi Arabian capital on Saturday to woo a Saudi prince in an
ongoing effort to find donors to fund restoration for nine Roman
monuments.
Ignazio Marino will land in Riyadh to present his
fundraising dossier - which has accompanied the mayor on recent
foreign travels - to the art lover Sultan bin Salman bin
Abdulaziz.
Marino's portfolio of projects includes a 1.3-million-euro
plan to restore the facades of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni - a
neoclassical exhibition hall and museum completed in 1883 - and
a six-million-euro effort to return the Seven Halls, an ancient
Roman cistern that once supplied the Baths of Trajan, to their
former glory.
Marino's trip is part of a larger effort to find private
donors to underwrite important renovations in a time of pinched
public coffers.
Luxury goods company Tod's is sponsoring the renovation of
the Colosseum; Fendi is giving aid for the Trevi Fountain; and
Japanese fashion entrepreneur Yuzo Yagi is financing a makeover
for the 2000-year-old Pyramid of Cestius.
Other donors include Bulgari and the embassy of Azerbajian,
while contacts are underway with Coca Cola.
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