Royal Opera House asks major donor to pay up
Howard Lake | 20 July 2005 | News
What do you do if a major donor doesn’t deliver on promised donations? In the Royal Opera House’s case, they have set a 60-day deadline to pay up.
The donor, Alberto Vilar, agreed in September 1999 to donate £10 million to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Part of the agreement was that the newly converted buildings of the Covent Garden extension would be named the Vilar Floral Hall.
However, the Cuban-born businessman currently faces fraud charges in the USA, and his donations have reportedly stopped. The board of the Royal Opera House yesterday gave Vilar 60 days to pay up, after “consistently” failing to meet deadlines set to pay. If he doesn’t pay by this deadline then the parties’ agreement will be terminated. It is not clear if this will involve the removal of Vilar’s name from the Floral Hall.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.