PARIS, France — Oil company Total says it has signed an agreement to pay $111 million toward the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris that it pledged shortly after April’s devastating fire.
Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne signed an accord Thursday with the Heritage Foundation, an organization handling reconstruction payments. The money will be paid in installments from 2020 until the end of the work, which President Emmanuel Macron has said will take five years.
Last month, French billionaire Francois Pinault and his son finalized their $111 million donation, a week after rival tycoon Bernard Arnault of luxury giant LVMH finalized his company’s donation of $222 million.
The agreements follow months of delay that left officials reliant on small charity donations to fund the repairs’ first phase.
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