Serpentine rolls out the barrels for Christo

Work has begun in London’s Hyde Park, at the Serpentine lake, for the first major temporary sculpture in

the city by the Bulgarian-american artist Christo, known for wrapping in fabric buildings including the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont Neuf in Paris.

Timed to coincide with the Serpentine Galleries’ June exhibition of work by Christo and his late wife and artistic collaborator, Jeanneclaude, the project, titled The Mastaba, will

involve balancing 7,506 painted barrels, with a combined weight of 500 tons, on a floating platform in the middle of the lake.

Everything, down to the protection of the last blade of grass and the ecosystem of the lake, has had to be approved by The Royal Parks foundation.

As with all of Christo’s public projects, the structures are

temporary and paid for by the sale of his drawings and collages.

The Mastaba is estimated to be costing him $4.2million (£3million) – a smaller figure than usual because this project is for a shorter duration – and the drawings and collages are beginning to go up on his website, priced between $100,000 (£71,000) and $900,000.