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  • Jan 23rd, 2010
  • Comments Off on Qatari prince ends dispute on Paris mansion
A Qatari prince who owns a rare 17th-century mansion in Paris settled a dispute on Friday with heritage activists who had feared he would destroy a cultural gem, the French government said. A French court had blocked plans by Prince Abdullah Bin Abdullah Al-Thani, brother of Qatar's emir, to modernise the Hotel Lambert, a UNESCO heritage site perched on the Ile Saint Louis island in the Seine in central Paris.

The prince had been set to begin turning it into a family residence, restoring historic rooms but also putting in elevators and an underground car park, under a government permit. A judge put the work on hold because of "shortcomings" in the architect's plans, saying it was unclear what their full impact would be.

The culture ministry said in a statement that the prince signed an agreement on Friday with the heritage association Historic Paris which "puts an end to the dispute" after weeks of delicate government-supervised negotiations. The Hotel Lambert is considered one of the finest examples of mid-17th-century domestic French architecture, complete with mural paintings by Charles Le Brun and other masters of the day.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010


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