Exhibition on Christo's 'Wrapped Reichstag' opens in Berlin

The exhibition opens this Wednesday (25.11.2015) in the presence of Christo and the president of the German parliament, Norbert Lammert.

The show includes 400 exhibits, including models, documents, photos and sketches by the artist as well as original parts used in the wrapping of the Reichstag. In 1995 Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009, wrapped the building in thousands of meters of silvery material. Within the space of just two weeks, some five million people came to see the work of art.

Eighty-year-old Christo already tried back in the 1970s with his wife to persuade politicians to let him carry out his idea of the "Wrapped Reichstag." Following many heated discussions, the artist couple was given the go-ahead in the summer of 1994 to realize their project. The exhibit also shows how long the "Wrapped Reichstag" took from being a concept to turning into reality.

At the beginning of the year, entrepreneur Lars Windhorst bought the original designs and other materials from Christo. Windhorst has loaned them to the Reichtstag for their exhibit for the next 20 years. Anyone wanting to see the exhibition has to register for the free-of-charge weekend art tours of the Bundestag parliament building.

ak/sb (with dpa)