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Duomo seeks Russian cash for €15m restoration

The organization responsible for the restoration of Milan’s iconic Duomo has travelled to Russia in an attempt to secure a €15 million investment to restore the monument in time for the 2015 Milan Expo.

Duomo seeks Russian cash for €15m restoration
Photo: ReservasdeCoches.com

The ‘Venerable Factory of the Duomo of Milan’, the 600-year-old organization dedicated to the cathedral’s maintenance, preservation, and restoration, has begun its search for foreign investors to spruce up the monument in time for the 2015 Milan Expo.

To this effect, the organization’s president Angelo Caloia, has travelled to Russia to seek a €15 million investment in the restoration project.

According to the organization, Russian tourists currently account for 654,500 (13.9 percent) of the cathedral’s five million visitors each year.

The organization hopes that the renovation will be complete in time for the 2015 Expo, when a boom in visitors from all over the world is expected.

The second most popular nationality is American, accounting for 10.75 percent of visitors each year. Germans are the third most common tourist, making up 6.88 percent of visitors.

“We need 15 million more euros,” Caloia was quoted by the Italian news website Leggo as saying, “even though our subscriptions are increasing (25 in the last ten months) for the ‘adopt a steeple’ initiative”.

See also: Submarine stunt baffles Milan

Renovation work would include cleaning, restyling the counter-façade and securing the 135 spires of the cathedral.

“We would like a Russian contribution, a donation to Milan on the occasion of the Expo. We hope that one of the 138 participating countries can help us,” Caloia added.

Caloia will also travel to New York and Washington in a bid to snap up more tourists and sponsors for the cathedral.

The Duomo, which took six centuries to complete, is the fifth largest cathedral in the world and the largest in Italy. 

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RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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