Le grand art

No tickets or reservations were required to admire and touch the artwork.

An esti­mated 6 million people viewed Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961 — 2021 during its 16 days from September 18 through October 3, 2021. The project, realized in part­ner­ship with the Centre des monu­ments nati­onaux (CMN), in coor­di­na­tion with the City of Paris and with the support of Centre Pompidou, wrapped the Arc de Triomphe monu­ment in 25,000 square meters of recy­clable silvery blue fabric and 3,000 meters of recy­clable red rope.

The artwork was free and acces­sible to the public, no tickets or reser­va­tions were required to view and touch the tempo­rary work of art. The artwork of Christo and Jeanne-Claude created an excep­tional enthu­siasm: six million visi­tors came to admire L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped”.

Like all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s past projects, L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped received no public funds or spon­sor­ships, and was enti­rely funded through the sale of original works of art by Christo, inclu­ding prepa­ra­tory studies and collages, models, artworks from the 1950s and 1960s and litho­graphs. The cost of the project was appro­xi­m­ately 14,000,000 Euros (16 million USD). The cost includes plan­ning, engi­nee­ring, buil­ding, staf­fing, main­ten­ance, and removal of the work of art.

Of the 6 million visitors, an estimated 3.2 million were tourists. This means an approximate 235 million euros in tourism revenue during the 16 days.

More than 1,200 workers contri­buted to the project, inclu­ding manu­fac­tu­rers, engi­neers, buil­ding contrac­tors, onsite moni­tors, and secu­rity personnel. The cons­truc­tion team was made up of 140 indi­vi­duals with 95 clim­bers, who unfolded the fabric panels on each of the four facades of the Arc de Triomphe from its rooftop terrace.

Over 350 welcome moni­tors greeted visi­tors to the artwork and handed out free fabric samples throug­hout its 16 days. The majo­rity of moni­tors were from France, however, they repre­sented appro­xi­m­ately 20 diffe­rent natio­na­li­ties, and languages spoken inclu­ding French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Bulga­rian, Chinese, and Japa­nese.

Accor­ding to the Paris Conven­tion and Visi­tors Bureau, an esti­mated 6 million Pari­sians and visi­tors from around the world expe­ri­enced L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961–2021 in person and explored the area outside of its peri­meter, inclu­ding shops and restau­rants. Of these 6 million, it is esti­mated that 3.2 million were visi­tors (tourists staying in the area or day-trip­pers who spent several hours near to the monu­ment) and 1.1 million were prima­rily moti­vated to see the artwork, gene­ra­ting an esti­mated 235 million euros in tourism revenue during their stays.

The Place de l’Etoile was closed to car traffic for the three weekends of the exhibition and was reserved entirely for pedestrians.

To enable visi­tors to enjoy L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961–2021 safely and close up, the Place de l’Etoile was closed to vehi­cular traffic and pede­stria­nized for the three weekends of the display. This excep­tional closure to traffic was orga­nized with the support of the City of Paris and the Préfec­ture de Police, and enabled over 1.4 million Pari­sians and visi­tors to enjoy the artwork car free thanks to the pede­strian peri­meter during the weekends.

Deinstal­la­tion of L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961–2021, began on October 4 and ended by November 10, 2021. During this time, the inte­riors and the pano­r­amic terrace of the monu­ment, managed by the CMN, remained open to the public.

As done in all past projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the mate­rials used to create L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped will be reused, upcy­cled, and recy­cled.