March 2, 2005

$50M OFFER FOR 'GATES' NIXED

The New York Post
by Richard Johnson



CHRISTO and Jeanne-Claude, the husband-and-wife creators of "The Gates," have spurned a $50 million offer to buy the undulating orange sheets that briefly carpeted Central Park.

The duo financed the $21 million project through sales of Christo's drawings of "The Gates," life-size renderings that fetched about $600,000 apiece. The artists signed a contract with the city stipulating that all proceeds from "The Gates" and its memorabilia would be donated to nonprofits.

But financier Steven Greenberg — who evidently believes everyone has their price — tells PAGE SIX that he and a team of investors were willing to pony up $50 million for all 7,500 gates. "I thought collectors might pay $250,000 for four of them, to keep on their lawn or to add to their art collection," Greenberg says. "My idea was to re-market them. You could perhaps end up realizing $375 million for all of them."

Told of Greenberg and company's offer, Christo is said to have quipped, "I wouldn't sell them for $100 million."

A spokesman for Christo and Jeanne-Claude told us, " 'The Gates' are not for sale. The artists aren't making a penny off this project. The rights to the signed prints and merchandise are all going to charity. This is public knowledge, and in a contract they signed with the city. It's all out of their own pocket. The only thing they didn't pay for was the weather."

The spokesman added, "All the material will be recycled. The nylon will be shredded and made into carpet padding, and the aluminum will be melted down and sent back to an aluminum manufacturer."

The main beneficiary of "The Gates" is Nurture New York's Nature, a nonprofit environmental group that has an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license on all "Gates"-related products.

Nurture has since sub-licensed many of the products to groups like the Central Park Conservancy and the Met Museum. Nurture still gets a portion of proceeds from "Gates" T-shirts, sweatshirts, postcards, books and $295 silk commemorative Hermes scarves.

Nurture project manager Jake Kheel said that Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who are already working on their next project, a giant piece of fabric stretching over the Arkansas River in Colorado, are extremely sensitive over allegations that they are profiting from their work. "They adamantly insisted that they not profit from this project," he said. "They go crazy even at the suggestion that they're making money from it."


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