Christo’s large-scale work, The Mastaba, will be the world’s largest sculpture

Christo and Jeanne-Claude (who died in 2009) have always shown patience and pugnacity in achieving their ends. Their colossal wrapping projects have often needed years of dogged negotiation with administrations. If it took 24 years for them to be able to wrap the Reichstag in Berlin, their greatest work – the only one designed to be permanent – has required nearly 40 years of patience...This is the Abu Dhabi Mastaba, a project begun by the couple in 1977, whose completion has finally been announced for 2015.

Abandoned during the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, it was started up again in the early 2000s, when engineers were called upon to find some capable of erecting this pharaonic work 150 metres high (taller than the Giza pyramid) and 300 metres across. It will be made of 410,000 painted oil drums in a mosaic of red and yellow, echoing Islamic architecture. A mastaba is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb and a familiar shape to the people of the region

The Mastaba will be located at the site of Al Gharbia, 150 kilometres from Abu Dhabi, which is pursuing its transformation into a cultural capital. As with previous in situ projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the Mastaba – whose construction costs will come to some $340 m – will be made possible through independent financing, including the participation of the artist himself.

Christo's masterpieces, ephemeral by nature, are not for buying: they are experiments for seeing and experiencing. In this respect, the artist falls outside market standards, so to finance his projects he sells preparatory drawings (his record is $400,000 for a drawing of The Gates (Project for Central Park, New York City) sold at Christie's New York on 10 May 2006), prints, and photos (between $150 and $5,000 on average).

Thanks to the Mastaba, his secondary market looks set to flourish in the United Arab Emirates. And in fact, the first work he sold in Dubai was a 1979 drawing outlining what is to be the largest sculpture in the world. On 24 May 2006, the work (The Masatba of Abu Dhabi) was knocked down for $35,000 at Christie's.

Christo's works also in our shop.