Bordeaux's upcoming €63m wine cultural centre - due to open in 2016 – has founded a charitable endowment fund in the United States.
An arm of Bordeaux’s Cité des Civilisations du Vin named ‘The American Friends for the Center of Wine and Civilization,’ was created in March 2013 with a non-profit status – a similar organisation to the American Friends of Versailles and the American Friends of the Louvre, two highly successful charitable organisations that have donated funds to French cultural institutions.
The fund was set-up by Robert Wilmers of Chateau Haut-Bailly, George Sape, a partner in the law firm Epstein Becker and Green, and Nicolas Gailly, managing director of Barton & Guestier USA.
It will operate as a partner organisation to the Cité des Civilisations du Vin endowment fund in France, which has so far seen €13 million of donations from Bordeaux figures such as Domaine Clarence Dillon, Millésima négociants and Vignoble Bernard Magrez.
Veronique Sanders, director of Haut-Bailly, told decanter.com that Wilmers was a longstanding charitable benefactor in both France and the US.
‘He has helped to fund projects at the Ballet de l’Opera de Bordeaux for more than 10 years, and was president of a similar fundraising group for the CAPC museum of modern art from 2009-2012, as well as fundraising for the Albright Knox Art Gallery, and public schools in New York,’ she said.
The official press release states: ‘The mission of the American Friends of the Center for Wine and Civilization will be to promote the Cité des Civilisations du Vin across the Atlantic and to play a role in promoting the culture.’
