‘Wrapped Reichstag’ Survives Arson Attempt

Dawn broke over Germany’s future Parliament building resplendent in a covering of silver reflective fabric Saturday after arsonists unsuccessfully tried to sabotage artist Christo’s controversial work by setting it afire.

“They fired a burning arrow at the front portal. It burned for a while, making a small hole, and then fizzled out. The silver fabric is flameproof so it doesn’t burn long,” said a spokeswoman for the New York-based artist. Police are investigating the attack.

Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude--who have become Germany’s celebrities of the moment since they started wrapping the building due to house Parliament by the year 2000--are always prepared for attacks, the spokeswoman said.

Surrounded by a flurry of assistants, they are chauffeured in a flashy new minivan accompanied by two giant bodyguards, whom the artists have nicknamed “the bag carriers.”

After a week of labor, Berlin’s historic Reichstag, inaugurated in 1894 as united Germany’s Parliament, gutted by fire in 1933 and heavily bombed in 1945, was fully transformed into its new guise--the “Wrapped Reichstag”--on Friday.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude hired 1,200 multilingual monitors, many of them art students, to explain the work to visitors.

During the night Saturday, barriers keeping visitors away from the work were scheduled to be removed and the monitors were to be posted around the 314.9-foot-by-445.2-foot periphery of the Wrapped Reichstag to protect it.

“The monitors will be there to prevent vandalism and graffiti. They will also hand out fabric samples to make sure visitors do not snip away the fabric,” the spokeswoman said.

The German Tourist Office said about 100,000 people visited the site last week. The Wrapped Reichstag will remain in place until July 6.