Christo's wife dies

The artist Jeanne-Claude, famous for creating dramatic art projects with her husband Christo, had died at the age of 74. The cause of death was complications after a ruptured brain aneurysm, according to a statement on the couple's Web site. She passed away late Wednesday in New York.

The couple became world-famous with projects that included wrapping fabric around the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris. The "wrapped Reichstag" celebrated the official commencement of the building's reconstruction in 1995. It attracted around five million visitors over a period of two weeks.

The pair also surrounded islands off the Florida coast with fabric and placed giant umbrellas in California and Japan. In New York, they hung thousands of saffron-colored banners along footpaths in Central Park in a project called "The Gates."

Their current, unfinished installations are "Over the River, a project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado" and "The Mastaba" in the United Arab Emirates.

Christo, the more famous half of the duo, was "deeply saddened by the passing of his wife, partner and collaborator," according to the couple's Web site. But he vowed "to honor the promise they made to each other many years ago: The art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude will continue."

Partners in life and work

The artists were born on the same day - June 13, 1935 - Jeanne-Claude in Morocco and Christo in Bulgaria. They met each other in Paris in 1958, after Christo's successful escape to Western Europe. After the birth of their son Cyril in 1960, the family immigrated to the United States in 1964.

Their first collaborative project was the covering of oil barrels in the port of Cologne, Germany, in 1961. For the last five decades, Jeanne-Claude and Christo have been inseparable, both professionally and privately.

ew/AFP/AP

Editor: Kate Bowen