$20m Art Project Splits New Yorkers

A man entering Central Park as the sun began to dip on Thursday evening looked quizzically at the 5 metre-high (16ft) bright orange frames lining the path in front of him. "Is this the $20m (£11m) art project?" he asked. "I can think of a lot better things to do with $20m."

His small black and white dog then approached the base of one of them and raised its leg. "At least my dog likes it," he added. "That's something."

An army of volunteers will today unfurl 7,500 pieces of saffron-coloured fabric that will hang from the gates above the paths of New York's most famous park, in a project called The Gates, one of the most ambitious, expensive and controversial the city has seen.

In the past week about 600 people have helped put the gates into place which look like giant hurdles straddling the paths that criss-cross the park.The deputy mayor, Patricia Harris, described the work as a "defining moment in our city's cultural history".

Several hundred police have been called in to protect the work from vandals. Helicopters will patrol the park from the sky and high-powered cameras placed on buildings surrounding the perimeter.

The work is the brainchild of the artists Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude, whose shock of bright orange hair matches the work. Their previous projects have included wrapping land marks such as the Berlin Reichstag in 1995 and the Pont Neuf in Paris in 1985, and surrounding 11 islands off the coast of Miami with pink fabric. They conceived of The Gates 25 years ago after moving to New York from Europe.

The work will remain in place until February 27. But Christo said transience was part of the piece. "All our work is about freedom. Freedom is the enemy of possession and possession is equal to permanence."

The installation has already provoked differing reactions. Naomi Wolf, a volunteer at the Metropolitan Museum, was in the park with her camera. She said she had heard one woman hurling abuse at those raising the gates, accusing them of ruining the park. Another woman had appreciated the work but with a tinge of guilt about the cost of the project.

New Yorkers, though, are not paying a cent. The work is funded by the artists' sale of preparatory drawings, collages and scale models.

Ms Wolf said she too had her doubts before the installation began but said she had been won over by seeing the gates. "At first I thought, how are they going to improve on nature? But it somehow makes you see the trees more. It opens your eyes to what is around you. I very much appreciate it."

"People are talking to each other and being in New York can otherwise be quite isolating," she added.