Picture "The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City, XXIII" (2004)

Each of their installations or wrapping projects required an effort that was only made for large-scale state projects. With a persistence bordering on obsession, and organisation to that of a medium-sized company, Christo & Jeanne-Claude negotiated with authorities, companies, engineers, and technicians. Time? Space? Patience? Money? All relative: "The Gates" in Central Park stretched over 37 kilometres, cost 21 million dollars, and took 26 years from idea to realisation. "The Wrapped Reichstag" took 24 years to complete, and the 40-kilometre "Running Fence" cost over 3 million dollars – by the way, all financed exclusively through the sale of drawings, models, and photos.

Christo put it in a nutshell: "Many people think of us as sculptors or painters. But our work has much more to do with architecture, urban planning, and logistics." He could not imagine working exclusively in the studio: "The most important thing is the visual experience, a celebration of space and the people within space. All my work is about the experience of space. That's why we took our art out of the studio. We rent public space and conquer it for art."

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Marie Denat were both born on 13 June 1935 - he in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, and she in Casablanca. Jeanne-Claude studied Latin and philosophy at the University of Tunis, while Christo studied at the Sofia Academy of Fine Arts. They met in Paris in 1958 and married in 1962. In 2009, Jeanne-Claude died from complications due to a brain aneurysm. Christo lived and worked in New York until his death in 2020.