The Story of Artist Christo’s $4 Million Wrapped VW Beetle
This June, Gagosian will present the ultra-rare wrapped car at Art Basel Unlimited.
Christo’s Wrapped 1961 Volkswagen Beetle Saloon, 1963–2014, will go on sale at Art Basel Unlimited in Switzerland.
Photographer: Wolfgang Volz, © Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, Courtesy Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and Gagosian
The late artist Christo is famous for colossal, participatory artworks such as wrapping the Arc de Triomphe and surrounding islands in Florida with 6.5 million square feet of floating fabric. At the start of his career, his scope was decidedly more modest.
For one of Christo’s first-ever gallery shows in 1963, he persuaded a friend to lend him a VW Beetle, which he wrapped in waxed cloth and installed outside a gallery in Dusseldorf. When the show was over, the fabric came off and the car was returned. The friend “had just saved up enough money to buy the Beetle,” explains Christo’s nephew, Vladimir Yavachev, “so he wanted it back.”