Christo before Christo: Paris exhibition reveals artist’s earlier works

Exhibition to show items the artist experimented with before larger wrapped pieces that defined him

Long before scaling the heights of the Reichstag in Berlin or the Pont Neuf in Paris, the artist known as Christo started on a much smaller scale.

Having fled communist Bulgaria for Paris and working in a maid's room, the impoverished refugee began creating his first wrapped sculptures using everyday objects such as cans, bottles and - when he found a bigger studio - old oil barrels.