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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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tax-deductible foundation.

Q:

I see. Are you head of this foundation?

Lasker:

No. Mrs. Vandercamp I think is going to be the head of it. I'm on the board of it, and all the former American ambassadors to France are going to be trustee advisors or members of the council.

Q:

How much money do you hope to raise?

Lasker:

Well, we have raised in the past about $600,000, that I took through the Lasker Foundation, but with the new change in the tax law I found that I thought that was inadvisable so we got this thing established.

Q:

I see. When we talk about money necessary to restore Versailles?

Lasker:

Oh, it would take, let's say, to really do a very good job, would take maybe another 10 million dollars, to restore the major rooms, to look the way they did in the 18th century.

Q:

To fill them with furniture again.

Lasker:

To fill them with old furniture, and chandeliers, and do the things in the major rooms that look the way they did. It would cost infinitely more to really furnish it all, but that's not necessary really. We just need to see what the major rooms looked like. You know, the French government itself has furnished the Grand Trianon to look the way it did at the time of Napoleon and Marie Louise. It's all been restored. It's magnificent, and the Petit Trianon now needs to be done.





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