Born on the same day, June 13, 1935, on different continents, Christo and Jeanne-Claude built one of the most formidable partnerships in contemporary art. This episode follows Christo's escape from Soviet-aligned Bulgaria in 1956 as a stowaway on a freezing freight train, his 17 years as a stateless person without a passport or bank account, and how that experience of rigid borders shaped a lifelong obsession with reclaiming public space. Jeanne-Claude, raised in a constantly relocating military family, brought the logistical discipline that made the projects possible.

We break down their closed-loop funding model: no grants, no sponsors, only bank loans repaid by selling Christo's preparatory drawings and models. That independence financed the Wrapped Coast in Australia, the 24.5-mile Running Fence, the Wrapped Reichstag after 24 years of  ...