Fendi will finance a renovation of Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain, becoming the latest luxury group to fund repairs to priceless heritage in times of austerity.
The 2.12 million euro ($2.85 million) repairs on the nearly 300-year-old fountain will be finished by 2015, Rome’s city hall and Fendi said in a note.
Fendi’s artistic director Karl Lagerfeld, who is also a celebrated photographer, said he would be publishing a book on the fountains of Rome that will feature some of his daguerreotypes — an antique type of photograph.
The “Fendi for Fountains” project will also include funding to restore Quattro Fontane, late Renaissance fountains gracing each corner of a busy intersection which are blackened with soot.
Under the deal with Rome city authorities, Fendi’s logo can be displayed on building site signs during the repairs and the company can hang a plaque near the monuments for four years after completion.
There has been concern about the state of the Trevi Fountain, which is visited by millions of tourists every year, particularly after bits of its elaborate cornice began falling off last year following a particularly harsh winter.
The Trevi Fountain, commissioned by Pope Clement XII in 1730, is the end point of one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied Rome with water.
It famously featured in a scene of Federico Fellini’s iconic film “La Dolce Vita” in which Marcello Mastroianni and co-star Anita Ekberg share a kiss while wading through its pristine waters.
Spending cuts in tough economic times have hit cultural budgets particularly hard in Italy, forcing managers to seek private funding.
The Trevi restoration comes after Diesel jeans founder Renzo Rosso took on the five-million-euro cost of renovating the Rialto Bridge in Venice, and shoe billionaire Diego Della Valle has offered 25 million euros for a clean-up of the Colosseum.
