President Macron unveils wrapped Arc de Triomphe | Abroad

The project ‘L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped’ was supposed to be shown last year, but was postponed due to the corona crisis. The arch will remain cloaked until October 3. According to Macron, the monument has been “reinvented.”

Christo’s team and the French Heritage Agency needed 25,000 square meters of recyclable polypropylene fabric and 3,000 meters of rope and cable to pack the iconic building.

The Bulgarian-American packaging artist Christo already packed the Pont Neuf in Paris in 1985 with his wife Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009. Their first plans for packing the Arc date back to 1962.

14 million euros

More than a thousand workers, engineers and climbers contributed to the packaging of the Arc. The couple has financed the costs, 14 million euros, themselves, including through the sale of sketches, collages and plans. Christo’s dream was to turn the Arc into “a living object, stimulated by the wind and reflecting the light.”

The Triumphal Arch was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon I in the early 19th century to glorify his victories.

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