Many people are wondering who will pay for the repairs after the devastating fire at Paris’ iconic landmark.
The fire that scorched Notre-Dame cathedral has been extinguished, and preparations are already in the works to repair the damage and reconstruct what has been lost. The expenditures are projected to be tremendous, and completion will take years. Currently, 1 billion euros has been contributed to aid in the restoration.
However, as big as these contributions are, they are likely to comprise a modest part of the total costs after everything is said and done. Although the full amount of the damage is unknown, initial estimates put the cost of restoration in the billions of dollars.
Is Notre-Dame cathedral covered by an insurance policy?
When a structure is damaged by fire, you’d generally expect the owner’s insurance coverage to pay the cost of repairs or reconstruction. After all, if your house burned down, your homeowner’s insurance would help pay for the repairs and rebuilding. To avoid stating the obvious, Notre-Dame cathedral is not a typical structure, and the monument, which is owned by the French government, is not insured.
AXA Insurance in France released a statement that explains how this is possible:
“Since 1862, the Notre Dame cathedral has been designated as a historical monument, and it, like all state-owned buildings, is self-insured (hence, AXA is not the monument’s insurer).”
What if the fire was caused by contractors?
However, previous to the incident, AXA was the insurer that granted liability insurance coverage to two of the five companies working on the site’s restoration project. Although no foul play is suspected, if either of these companies is found legally culpable for starting the fire, even if it was done accidently, the insurer may be held liable, but only up to the policy’s limit.
According to industry insiders, the insurance limits for liability coverage carried by these companies are typically 10 million euros, which is insufficient to pay the costs of the severe damages.
Even so, if any of the companies participating in the restoration were also involved in the fire, any reimbursement will most certainly take years. The cause of the fire must first be determined, after which the liable corporation must be sued for damages and proved guilty in court. Only once the insurer has been proven legally liable will the claim be paid out.
AXA has contributed ten million euros to the fundraising drive in the meantime.
What about the money left over?
Donations are still pouring in on a daily basis. What if the donations actually outnumber the repair costs? Every euro donated “for the renovation of Notre-Dame will be utilized for that, and nothing else,” according to France’s Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe. With this in mind, if additional funds become available, one would expect them to be directed toward the facility and the services it provides.
The donations, combined with any insurance claim payouts, are unlikely to exceed the overall cost of repairing and rebuilding Notre-Dame cathedral, and the difference will be covered by the French government and its citizens.
How much is Notre Dame church Worth?
- A fire broke out on April 15, 2019, at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, forcing the roof and spire to collapse.
- In the days that followed, French billionaires, affluent families, and corporations hurried to offer their money to repair the monument, gathering 850 million euros, or $954 million at the time.
- However, the money was nowhere to be found for six months, while repairs were supported by $39 million in tiny donations from 46,000 people and 60 businesses.
- However, the coronavirus pandemic has slowed critical repairs, and 551 tons of molten metal lattice sitting precariously on the roof might collapse at any moment, destroying even more of the landmark.
Can Notre Dame cathedral Be Saved?
The centuries-old Cathedral of Notre-Dame in the center of Paris has been secured enough to begin the rebuilding process, which is projected to be completed in 2024, according to French authorities, two and a half years after a fire decimated the building.
The French authorities had to dismantle scaffolding and clear debris that had piled up on the floor, among other tasks, to stabilize the 850-year-old cathedral, according to Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, a former army chief of staff who was appointed to oversee the restoration by President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday.
“We’re officially declaring the cathedral saved, that it’s solid on its pillars, that its walls are solid,” General Georgelin, who heads the government’s Notre-Dame restoration task force, told BFM-TV in France.
The task force, known as Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, or Rebuild Notre-Dame, said in a statement on Facebook on Saturday that the cathedral was on track to reopen in 2024, meeting Mr. Macron’s ambitious five-year deadline to reopen the Gothic landmark in the same year as the Summer Olympics in Paris.
Who insured Notre Dame?
The state of France owns the edifice, as it does all religious structures built before 1905, and acts as its own insurer. The Notre-Dame is effectively uninsured.
The contents of Notre-Dame, including art, antiques, and relics, are insured under each owner’s policy, or the archdioceses of Paris are responsible for them.
The insurance company AXA Art admitted that it was “engaged in the insurance of specific antiques and ceremonial pieces in the Notre-Dame.”
The French insurer also acknowledged that two of the contracting firms working on the Notre-Dame at the time of the fire were covered by liability insurance.
A public prosecutor in Paris, Remy Heitz, said the fire was still being investigated as an accident.
Who is paying for the repair of Notre Dame?
Instead, the first donations covering the bills and salaries for up to 150 personnel hired by the cathedral since the April 15 fire that destroyed its roof and forced its majestic spire to collapse have come primarily from American and French individuals via Notre Dame charitable foundations.
Who is paying for the rebuilding of Notre Dame?
The French court of auditors has issued a report stating that donations collected to assist repair Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral must be used to directly pay the church’s renovation rather than to fund the governmental body supervising the restoration.
When a horrific fire tore through the 850-year-old edifice on April 15, 2019, toppling the roof and spire and endangering the structural stability of its two towers, the world mobilized to preserve it. François Pinault and Bernard Arnault, millionaire art collectors and businesspeople, promised 300 million ($340 million) to restore the world-renowned monument within hours.
The court rules that the gifts, which total 825 million ($967 million) in committed cash, shall be used solely to pay for the cathedral’s repair, including the training of historical apprentices on site. The public entity in charge of the operation, on the other hand, must be backed with public monies in order to honor the donors’ intentions, according to the court.
The auditors discovered that the project’s management organization, directed by retired military general Jean-Louis Georgelin, was misusing 5 million ($5.8 million) in cash each year to pay the wages of its 40-person team, rent the building they’re in, and cover other expenses like communications. This is in breach of a law enacted on July 16, 2019 that governs restoration work and associated costs.
Will Notre Dame be rebuilt?
The church will reopen to the public in 2024, according to officials. The iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in France is finally safe for artisans to reconstruct, more than two years after a devastating fire destroyed the structure.
How much damage was done to Notre Dame cathedral?
The cathedral’s wood/metal roof and spire were mostly destroyed, with only about a third of the roof remaining. The roof and spire shattered on top of the stone vault beneath it, which now serves as the cathedral’s inner ceiling. Some of the vaulting crumbled, allowing debris from the flaming roof to fall to the marble floor below, but thanks to the use of rib vaulting, the majority of the vaulting stayed intact, substantially minimising damage to the cathedral’s interior and contents.
A crown of thorns said to be the one Jesus wore at his crucifixion, a purported piece of the cross on which Jesus was crucified, the Tunic of St. Louis, a much-rebuilt pipe organ by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, and the 14th-century Virgin of Paris statue were among the artworks, religious relics, and other irreplaceable treasures housed in the cathedral.
Most of the cathedral’s precious treasures were kept in the adjacent sacristy, which the fire did not reach; all of the cathedral’s relics survived. A human chain of emergency workers and civil servants relocated some of the contents. Many valuables that were not removed were also saved, although the fate of many more was unknown as of April 16.
How much money did the Notre Dame raise?
After the devastating fire, Notre Dame raised nearly $1 billion, but the church now says it needs more. The church is limited in how it can use money received shortly after the 2019 fire. After the fire, the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.