Unique Christo-wrapped Leica M4 camera inscribed and gifted to photographer Wolfgang Volz to be auctioned Oct. 12 in Germany

Historically important camera was used by Volz to document Christo + Jeanne-Claude installations worldwide, becoming a tangible part of their ephemeral art and, later, a wrapped work of art itself

WETZLAR, Germany – Every artist, whether famous or obscure, adds something to the collective consciousness of art. But every once in a great while, a true innovator emerges to take the art world down an entirely new path. That certainly applied to the late duo known as Christo + Jeanne-Claude, whose jointly-conceived, grand-scale installations of environmental art captivated the world for several decades. Since the early 1960s, their collaborative projects – whether involving a monument such as the Arc de Triomphe or 11 islands in Miami’s Biscayne Bay – were headline-makers with one thing in common. All featured unexpected physical subjects imaginatively hand-wrapped in some sort of material. After Jeanne-Claude passed away in in 2009, Christo carried on with the genre he and his wife had invented, orchestrating sensational site-specific installations that attracted millions of visitors. 

Christo + Jeanne-Claude believed that art was fleeting, therefore their work should be ephemeral as well. After an installation had spent its preallotted time in the public eye, it disappeared. In Rita Gilbert’s Living with Art book series, Christo said of their creations: “They all go away when they’re finished. Only the preparatory drawings and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character. I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain.”

Indeed, Christo’s design sketches for the couple’s wrappings, as well as his earlier Wrapped Objects, Wrapped Books and editions, are widely regarded as their only surviving works. Each is a sought-after rarity on the art market. But now something very special has emerged – something unique, personally associated with Christo + Jeanne-Claude, and of course, wrapped. It is a Leica M4 camera belonging to the famed photographic artist and Christo + Jeanne-Claude collaborator Wolfgang Volz (German, b. 1942-).

Volz officially accompanied the Christo + Jeanne Claude projects over a period of nearly 50 years, photographically documenting each of their finished projects. Because of the temporary nature of those installations, Volz’s photographs are all that remain in a tangible form from those experiences. Therefore, one may conclude that the camera creating those images became, by extension, a contributory part of the actual works of art.  

On the occasion of Wolfgang Volz’s birthday on January 17, 1994, the photographer’s Leica M4 camera joined the Christo oeuvre of wrapped objects when it was returned in its newly-enhanced state as a unique gift from the artist. 

Some time prior to its wrapping by Christo, Wolfgang Volz had redesigned the originally silver chrome-plated Leica M4 with a Summicron 35mm lens in a red-and-blue motif. Volz explained that this was done specifically for a job he had been commissioned to do in New York’s Bronx borough for the German news magazine Der Spiegel. Volz wanted to take his photos as unobtrusively as possible and was concerned that the eye-catching silver chrome-plated camera might attract attention. 

Through the cord-wrapped foil – which was personally signed by Christo with the inscription “For Wolfgang / Jan. 17, 1994 / Christo” – one can see the Leica M4’s red and blue colors. The historically important camera, which has never before been seen in the marketplace, will be offered as Lot No. 80 in Wetzlar Camera Auctions’ October 12, 2024 sale. 

The 248-lot live auction will take place at the Hotel Bürgerhof, Konrad-Adenauer-Promenade 20, 35578 Wetzlar, Germany. Bidders worldwide may participate absentee, by phone, or live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers. For questions or to obtain additional information, call Wetzlar Camera Auctions at +49 6441 9822322 or email [email protected]. View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid either absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers at https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/340352_auction-6/. Wetzlar website: https://www.wetzlarcameraauctions.com/en-gb/home