From Timesonline:

“Venetians reconstructing a gold-covered barge used by the doges of Venice until it was reduced to ashes by Napoleon have appealed to President Sarkozy of France to contribute to the cost “by way of reparation”.

The foundation behind the €20 million (£15 million) project wants France to make a financial contribution to compensate for what has been described as the wilful destruction of the barge, which was set ablaze during Napoleon’s occupation of Venice in 1798.

The Fondazione Bucintoro has written to President Sarkozy to ask France to contribute as a goodwill gesture to make amends for Napoleon’s “vandalism”.

The elaborate and imposing ducal barge, known as the Bucintoro, was a symbol both of the doge’s power and of the Venetian Republic’s mystical relationship with the sea and its once-extensive empire. The origin of the name is obscure but is thought to combine burcio, a traditional Venetian term for a lagoon vessel, with in oro, meaning covered in gold.

Venetian scholars believe that there were four…”

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