# Royal Opera House asks major donor to pay up

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/07/20/royal-opera-house-asks-major-donor-pay/
- Published: 2005-07-20T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

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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