CHRISTO (Bulgaria, 1935- USA, 2020). "The Mastaba, Project for the United Arab Emirates", 2008. Mixed media drawing on paper. Unique piece. Signed and dated in the lower right corner and also on the back. Enclosed certificate signed by Christo. Measurements: 21,5 x 28 cm; 22,5 x 29 cm (frame). The La Mastaba project was conceived by Christo and Jeanne Claude in 1977 for the Liwa desert, approximately 160 km (100 miles) south of the city of Abu Dhabi. Although it could not be realized during the artists' lifetime, it is scheduled for postmortem execution, which will consist of carrying out the world's largest "mastaba" or contemporary sculpture (in volume), made of 410,000 multicolored barrels to form a colorful mosaic that echoes Islamic architecture (it should be recalled that a mastaba is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb with a rectangular base, flat roof and sloping side walls, built with adobe blocks or stone). The Mastaba will be 150 meters (492 feet) high, 300 meters (984 feet) long on the vertical walls and 225 meters (738 feet) wide on the 60-degree sloping walls. The feasibility of the immense project is supported by the fact that, in 2007 and 2008, Christo and Jeanne-Claude engaged engineering professors from ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the USA, Cambridge University in the UK and Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan, to prepare feasibility studies. In the end, the Hosei University concept was deemed to be the most technically sound and innovative. Once government approval is obtained, the construction period will last at least three years, and will be a self-financed project that will not require government funding, as is the case with all of the artistic tandem's projects. A renowned artistic couple of the late 20th century, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's wrapped objects are some of the most extreme examples of conceptual art. Christo Valdimirov Javacheff studied between 1952 and 1956 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, then spent a year in Prague. In 1957 Christo fled the socialist state and settled in Vienna, from where he would travel to Geneva and finally to Paris. His life in Paris was characterized by economic deprivation and social isolation, which was increased by his difficulty in learning the French language. He earned money by painting portraits, which he likened to prostitution. In January 1958, Christo made his first piece of "wrapped art"; he covered an empty paint jar with a canvas soaked in acrylic. Christo and Jeanne-Claude met in Paris in November 1958. In 1961 he tackled what would be his first project with large objects, wrapping barrels in the port of Cologne. In 1962, Christo and Jeanne-Claude tackled their first monumental project, "Rideau de fer", as a statement against the Berlin Wall. The work consisted of blocking off Visconti Street over the river with oil barrels. Although Christo was simultaneously holding his first gallery exhibition, it was the Visconti project that made him known in Paris. In 1964 the couple settled in New York. In 1968 they participated in Documenta 4 in Kassel, and in 1969 they undertook one of their most famous projects, that of wrapping the Little Bay waterfront in Sydney, Australia. Since then, they have completed numerous large-scale projects around the world, including "Running fence" and "Wrapped walk ways" in the United States, "Pont Neuf" in Paris, "Umbrellas" in the United States and Japan, and the Reichstag building in Germany.