Not On The Hook For Notre Dame Rebuild, Says Insurance Official

It’s going to be up to “the French state and benefactors,” an official from Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox told Reuters, and the costs, just for the scaffolding and securing the building, are going to be “enormous,” he said. Some of the crafts required for the work, for example, would have to be relearned. Robert Read, who is Hiscox Global Head of Art and Private Clients, compared the scale of the project to that of a rebuild of the British Parliament, costs for which have been estimated up to $8 billion. Initial speculation about the cause of the fire has pointed to contractors working on renovations, and they would have their own liability policies, typically “for tens of millions of euros,” Read said. “But effectively that is going to be a drop in the ocean compared to what the actual cost of restoring the cathedral is.” Meanwhile, a fund raising campaign has been initiated, and early indications are that it’s going to be extraordinarily successful, with major donors and numerous small contributors already making commitments.