The founder and chief executive of luxury shoe company Tod's said he is willing to spend 25 million euros to sponsor Italy's effort to restore the 2,000 year old Roman Colosseum. The catch is the Italian government must scrap a rule that restoration sponsors have to organise the work.

Rome, 3 Dec. (AKI) - The founder and chief executive of luxury shoe company Tod's said he is willing to spend 25 million euros to sponsor Italy's effort to restore the 2,000 year old Roman Colosseum. The catch is the Italian government must scrap a rule that restoration sponsors have to organise the work.

"We cannot continue reading about pieces of ancient ruins collapsing here and there," Tod's founder Diego Della Valle told a press conference on Thursday.

Della Valle said his offer must be accepted by the end of the year so Tod's can include the expenditure in its budget, he said. The Saint'Elpidio, Italy-based company in 2009 sold 713 million euros worth of shoes and other merchandise.

His comments followed a report in La Repubblica newspaper that a plan by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's government to attract private sponsors to pay for and oversee the Colosseum's restoration failed to stir up interest.

"Bidding by potential sponsors closed on 30 October without appropriate responses," said Italian Culture Ministry general secretary Roberto Cecchi, who added that his ministry would get in touch with Della Valle to discuss his offer in the next few days.

Work was supposed to include 5 million euros worth of scrubbing away the facade blackened by smog. In return for the funds, sponsors would secure advertising rights at the Colosseum which attracts millions of visitors every year. The government expected work to be completed by 2012.

The need to restore Italy's most recognizable monument made headlines in May when pieces of mortar and lime fell from the walls.

More recently, Italy's archeological woes attracted international attention at Pompeii, the ancient city buried by volcanic ash from Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD, one year before the Colosseum was constructed.

Heavy rains may have caused the frescoed House of the Gladiators to crumble last month, followed by the collapse of ancient walls at the site.

The sorry state of the world heritage site prompted Italy in 2008 to declare a "state of emergency" for Pompeii, handing over its management to a specially appointed superintendent, who was the head of the McDonald's fastfood chain in Italy.