Renowned wrapper of islands and historic landmarks, Christo, and his wife and partner Jeanne-Claude now have Bermuda in their sights ? but only for a lecture on their latest project, ?The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005?.

The event is being hosted by the Masterworks Foundation, and will take place at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on May 28 at 6 p.m.

?Following the lecture, there will be a question and answer reception in the lobby, and collages and drawings by the artists will also be on sale, which is how the couple finance their installations,? the foundation?s assistant to the director, Elise Outerbridge, said.

As with their previous projects, ?The Gates? will be entirely financed by the artists through C.V.J. Corporation, of which Jeanne-Claude is president, with the sale of studies, preparatory drawings and collages, scale models, earlier works of the ?50s and ?60s, and original lithographs on other subjects.

Bulgarian-born Christo studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Sofia and escaped to the West in 1957, where he furthered his studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Art before settling in Paris in 1958. There, in addition to portraiture, he began wrapping objects in various materials.

In 1961, Christo and his Moroccan-born wife, Jeanne-Claude, began collaborating on monumental projects using fabric as the primary medium, which they chose for its fluid and ephemeral qualities.

Their first collaboration was ?Dockside Packages? in the harbour of Cologne, Germany. Since then, Christo has wrapped objects, packages, scale models and preparatory drawings of their projects. Past major installations include ?Running Fence? in Sonoma and Marin counties in California; ?Surrounded Islands; in Greater Miami?s Biscayne Bay, Florida, ?The Pont Neuf Wrapped? (bridge over the Seine) in Paris, France; ?The Umbrellas? in Japan/USA; and the ?Wrapped Reichstag? (Brandenberg Gate) in Berlin, Germany.

It has taken since 1979 for Christo and Jeanne-Claude to get the go-ahead for their Central Park project, which is currently scheduled to open on February 12, 2005. It will consist of 7,500 16-foot high gates which will follow the edges of the Park?s 23 miles of footpaths, and from which will be hung saffron-coloured fabric panels seven feet above the ground. The gates will be spaced ten to 15 feet apart to allow the panels to billow horizontally in the breeze and bathe the park in a warm glow which can be seen from a distance through the leafless trees.

The temporary work of art will remain in situ for 16 days, following which the gates will be removed and the materials recycled.

The Masterworks Foundation is bringing Christo and Jeanne-Claude to Bermuda as part of its ongoing commitment to heighten awareness of and increase interest in public art, of which its current and highly popular ?Hogge Wilde? project is an example, and director Tom Butterfield is ecstatic about the latest ?coup?.

?Just as I never thought it would be possible to see an original Winslow Homer painting in our permanent collection in my lifetime, equally, little did I ever think an artist of Christo?s stature would come here in our lifetime. It is one of the great events we have been able to take on ? just fantastic,? he said.