  We consider the van der Waals energy of an atom near the infinitely thin
sphere with finite conductivity which model the fullerene. We put the sphere
into spherical cavity inside the infinite dielectric media, then calculate the
energy of vacuum fluctuations in framework of the zeta-function approach. The
energy for a single atom is obtained from this expression by consideration of
the rare media. In the limit of the infinite radius of the sphere the
Casimir-Polder expression for an atom and plate is recovered. For finite radius
of sphere the energy of an atom monotonously falls down as $d^{-3}$ close to
the sphere and $d^{-7}$ far from the sphere. For hydrogen atom on the surface
of the fullerene $C_{60}$ we obtain that the energy is $3.8 eV$. We obtain also
that the polarizability of fullerene is merely cube of its radius.
