At the age of 84, the artist Christo, known for wrapping buildings, has died

New York - The visual artist Christo has died today at his New York home at the age of 84, who became famous worldwide especially for wrapping buildings in textiles. His office reported this, and according to the AP agency, the cause of death was not specified.

The deceased conceptual artist was born in Bulgaria as Christo Vladimirov Javacheff. In 1957, he left for Prague, from where he then escaped to Vienna. He gained fame as part of an artistic duo with his wife Jeanne-Claude, who passed away in 2009. The two artists covered skyscrapers, part of the Australian coastline, the Roman walls, living trees, or the Parisian bridge Pont Neuf with fabric.

Their wrapping of the Berlin Reichstag attracted tens of thousands of spectators in 1995. In the following two weeks, another five million people from around the world came to see the building hidden under 100,000 square meters of shiny foil. According to the artists, the purpose of the entire event was to show the uniqueness of reality that fades away. The effort to draw attention to transience is, by the way, a theme that runs throughout the work of this artistic couple, who met in the late 1950s while studying in Paris.

Four years ago, Christo drew significant attention with his project of floating colored pontoons, which connected the towns around the northern Italian Iseo Lake for two weeks. A total of 1.3 million people walked on them.

"Christo lived his life to the fullest; not only did he conceive things that seemed impossible, he also realized those things," his office stated after the artist's death. "The works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude brought people together through shared experiences around the world, and their creations continue to live in our hearts and in our memories," quoted from the statement by AP.

Last spring, the media reported on a new project by Christo, which was supposed to be realized last month according to the original plan. The Arc de Triomphe in the center of Paris was to disappear under fabric for several days. Christo's team announced today that the installation in the French capital will be on display in September.