Robert Belot Editor

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (SOLEIF) was founded in 1982 and charged with raising funds for the restoration of the Statue and of Ellis Island. The foundation has raised over $700 million to date from private citizens and has restored the statue, the Ellis Island complex and now is opening the Statue of Liberty Museum. Going by the title of the Godmother of the Statue of Liberty, fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg is the head fundraiser for the Statue of Liberty Museum raising over 100 million dollars. By 1976, von Furstenberg had sold over a million wrap dresses and was featured on the cover of Newsweek. In 2012, she was named the most powerful woman in fashion by Forbes magazine. Robert Belot is a university professor at Universite Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, and the author of The Statue of Liberty: in Search of a Secret (French language publication).