In 1961, three years after they met in Paris, Christo and Jeanne-Claude began creating works of art in public spaces. One of their projects was to wrap a public building. When he arrived in Paris, Christo rented a small room near the Arc de Triomphe and had been attracted by the monument ever since. In 1962, he made a photomontage of the Arc de Triomphe wrapped, seen from the Avenue Foch and, in 1988, a collage. 60 years later, the project was finally concretised.

Opened to the public over the weekend, the Arc de Triomphe, standing at an imposing 164 feet at Place Charles de Gaulle in Paris, has been entirely enveloped in glistening, aluminium-coated blue polypropylene fabric—some 270,000 square feet of the stuff—secured by close to two miles of red rope, fixing the draped textile in place while emphasising the silhouette of the impressive architectural monument.

This ambitious wrapped work is the 24th completed outdoor installation by the late husband-and-wife duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude, executed six decades after the idea was first conceived. Between 1962 and 1963, Christo created a photomontage of one of his signature wrapped packages in place of the Arc de Triomphe, as seen from Avenue Foch.

The Bulgarian-born Christo passed away last year at his home in New York, aged 84. The artist’s early education in Soviet Socialist Realism, and his experience as a refugee of political revolution, were influences firmly embedded in his practice. His 35-year long collaboration with partner, artist Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009, and the large-scale site-specific works they created together, continue to be celebrated and immensely influential.

The pair are renowned for their striking sculptural works which intervene in urban and natural landscapes around the world, temporarily altering both the physical form and visual appearances of sites. Often referred to as part of the Nouveau Réalisme movement, the artists’ temporary textile interventions required dedicated planning and execution through detailed drawings and scale models. Some of their most well known works include The Gatesin in New York’s Central Park, Running Fence down the California coast, and Wrapped Coast in Australia.