Scramble begins to erase name of prickly gift-giver - Britain - Times Online

Scramble begins to erase name of prickly gift-giver - Britain - Times Online: "Scramble begins to erase name of prickly gift-giver
By Richard Morrison

PERHAPS he was always too good to be true. Perhaps the Royal Opera House was always too trusting when it named its Floral Hall and Young Artists scheme after a Cuban-American who appeared from nowhere with promises of donations running into millions.
But if Covent Garden was guilty of taking Alberto Vilar at face value, so, too, was the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which accepted pledged donations of $45 million (�25 million) from the opera-mad stock-market tipster. And the Kennedy Arts Centre in Washington ($50 million). And Carnegie Hall ($5 million). And Los Angeles Opera ($14 million). And many of Europe�s leading opera houses, from the Kirov to La Scala. "