57. The Secretariat informed the Committee that, in addition to the budget it had approved, a sum of two million French Francs ($340,000 as of 9 December 1988) had been donated to Unesco in November 1988 by a private association which had organized a special cultural event "The Return of Marco Polo". This sum was to be divided equally for use in the preservation of the Great Wall (China) and Venice (Italy), two World Heritage properties.