Confidential reports by experts cited by Marianne suggest the monument is in a poor state and riddled with rust.
The Eiffel Tower is riddled with rust and in need of full repairs, but instead it is being given a cosmetic 60 million euro paint job ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, according to confidential reports cited by French magazine Marianne.
The wrought-iron 324-metre (1,063 ft) high tower, built by Gustave Eiffel in the late 19th century, is among the most visited tourist sites in the world, welcoming about six million visitors each year.
However confidential reports by experts cited by Marianne suggest the monument is in a poor state and riddled with rust.
Also read: France elections: ‘Arrogant’ Macron must compromise to win support, says Oppn
“It is simple, if Gustave Eiffel visited the place he would have a heart attack,” one unnamed manager at the tower told Marianne.
The company that oversees the tower, Societe d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), could not be immediately reached for comment.
The tower is currently undergoing a repaint costing 60 million euros in preparation of the 2024 Olympics, the 20th time the Tower has been repainted.
Some 30% of the tower was supposed to have been stripped and then have two new coats applied but delays to the work caused by the COVID pandemic and the presence of lead in the old paint means only 5% will be treated, Marianne said.
SETE is reluctant to close the tower for a long time because of the tourist revenue that would be lost, it added.
Less time to read?
Try Quickreads
-
Shooting at July 4th parade in Chicago suburb, 5 dead, 19 hospitalized
Gunfire erupted at a Fourth of July parade route in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Highland Park on Monday, the Lake County Sheriff’s office said. WGN TV, citing unidentified law enforcement sources, said at least one person was feared dead with multiple injuries. The parade was suddenly halted when shots were fired about 10 minutes after it began, sending hundreds of people running for safety, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
-
Pope denies resignation rumours, hopes to visit Kyiv, Moscow
Pope Francis has dismissed rumours he plans to resign anytime soon, and says that he hopes to visit Moscow and Kyiv after travelling to Canada later this month. Francis also told Reuters in an interview published Monday that the idea “never entered my mind” to announce a planned retirement at the end of the summer, though he repeated he might step down some day as Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI did in 2013.
-
Al Jazeera reporter likely killed by unintentional gunfire from Israeli side: US
Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was likely killed by unintentional gunfire from Israeli positions, but independent investigators could not reach a definitive conclusion about the origin of the bullet that struck her, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. The U.S. Security Coordinator, after summarizing investigations by both the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian Authority, concluded that gunfire from Israeli positions was likely responsible for Abu Akleh’s death, the State Department said.
-
Imran Khan’s party apologised to US over foreign conspiracy claim: Pak minister
Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s allegations of a foreign conspiracy to overthrow his government is not new. The cricketer-turned-politician had even named a US diplomat named Donald Lu for being allegedly involved in a conspiracy to remove him from the post of prime minister. Now, a senior minister in the incumbent Shehbaz Sharif government has claimed that Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has apologised to Lu, the US assistant secretary for south and central Asian affairs.
-
Drones, helicopters search for missing after Italian glacier collapse
Helicopter crews and drones searched on Monday for around 15 people missing in the Italian Alps after part of a mountain glacier collapsed, killing at least six people and injuring eight. Sunday’s avalanche took place on the Marmolada, which at more than 3,300 metres is the highest peak in the Dolomites, a range in the eastern Italian Alps straddling the regions of Trento and Veneto.