Christian Böhmer
The veiled triumphal arch can then be seen between September 18 and October 3. When and in what form the inauguration will take place has not yet been determined.
Christo died in New York on May 31, 2020 at the age of 84. He had still prepared the Paris project. It is now being carried out by his team and the CMN, which manages the monument. The action by the Bulgarian-born artist was originally planned for spring 2020, but had to be postponed several times. The work for the packaging of the landmark of the French capital will start after July 14th, the French national holiday, as CMN announced.
The triumphal arch is wrapped in 25,000 square meters of recyclable polypropylene fabric in silver blue and 3,000 meters of red cord. The triumphal arch was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon I to glorify his victories in 1806. Under the arch is the tomb of the unknown soldier from the First World War.
In 1985, Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009, had already covered the famous Pont Neuf bridge in Paris with sand-colored fabric. The artist couple became known in Germany in 1995 for the packaging of the Berlin Reichstag building. The two had planned to cover the Arc de Triomphe since 1962.