Arc
de Triomphe renovation
The
four sculptural groups of the
Parisian monument will be restored at the same time thanks to the
generous Dassault Fondation. The work will last three months.
With over one million and half visitors a year, the Arc de
Triomphe
Place de l'Etoile in Paris, ensures its position ranking of the fifty
most visited monuments in France. Center for National Monuments, is a
"jewel". Its visitors are twice as likely, if you count
those who travel each year on the porch and look for the tomb of the
Unknown Soldier and architecture telling more than two hundred years of
history. Specifically, the four largest carved reliefs of the building
will be restored as early as April. The start of the renovation of the
site was launched Tuesday by Isabelle Cassim,
president of the Center for National Monuments, which preserves,
manages and hosts the Arc de Triomphe, among a hundred national
monuments under state ownership. Represented by its chairman, Serge
Dassault, with his side, his vice president, Olivier Dassault, Dassault
(owner of Figaro) fully fund the work, estimated at 800 000 euros. This
sponsorship is a first for the French manufacturer whose foundation
focuses mainly on projects in medicine and health. "Olivier Dassault,
says one of his relatives, had a sort of patriotic
enthusiasm when he was asked" by the Center for National Monuments,
which was seeking a sponsor (sponsorship is not however only 2% of the
overall budget of the public institution). "The group does not now
intended to make the monumental patronage, explains it in the Dassault
group, but it seems important, suddenly of heart, passion, sense of
participation in the history of France, to be the link in a chain
outside the scope of our natural response. "investment group will
simultaneously restore the sculptured groups. This is even better than
the calendar of celebrations very tight in 2010 requires that the
frescoes found their luster by 18 June for the 70th anniversary of the
call of General De Gaulle. Four teams will work in concert, from twenty
to forty workers,
depending on the complexity of groups to clean: The Departure of the
Volunteers of 1792 (known as La Marseillaise) by François
Rude, highlight the most famous Arc Triumph Napoleon 1810, by
Jean-Pierre Cortot, The Republic or the Resistance of 1814 and Peace in
1815 by Antoine Etex. "This work will be mainly devoted to the cleaning
surface of the stone to make the perception of modeling each of these
sculptures," says the Center on National Monuments that endless
intervention on the monument. For over twenty years, the "symbol of
the Nation" has been a series of
restorations of the building structure and general cleaning of the
building, from 1987 to 1989 for 34 million euros, creation a new
elevator in the south pier-west, from 1999 to 2000, restoration of the
stone terrace and an attic room, from 2003 to 2007, and inauguration of
a new permanent stage design in 2008. And it is not finished. Further
work will be undertaken in the fall for delivery at the end of
the year: a new boutique within the redevelopment of the reception area
and especially the rehabilitation of underground between Avenue of
Great Army and the Champs-Elysees, in order, to make this more
hospitable towards co-managed by the City of Paris, which owns the
police and the Center of National Monuments.