Italian artist auctions off ‘Invisible Sculpture’ for $18,300

How much would one pay for nothing? Can “nothing” be a work of art? According to Salvatore Garau, it can, and to those who bought his latest work.

The world's first invisible sculpture selling for €15,000 euros ($18,300), reports Italy 24 News.

The sculpture - or non-sculpture - is the work of artist Salvatore Garau, 67, who had the following to say about his work of art:

“The successful outcome of the auction testifies to an irrefutable fact: The void is nothing but a space full of energy, and even if we empty it and nothing remains, according to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle that nothingness has a weight. It, therefore, has an energy that condenses and transforms itself into particles, in short, in us! When I decide to ‘exhibit’ an immaterial sculpture in a given space, that space will concentrate a certain quantity and density of thoughts in a precise point, creating a sculpture that from my title alone will take the most varied forms. After all, don’t we give shape to a God we have never seen?”

"Not to mention that Salvatore Garau’s intangible works have zero environmental impact"
The Italian artist has created a completely invisible, immaterial sculpture (“I am”), which recently sold for €15,000 https://t.co/fFBQZK01Iy [thanks @iris_nt for sharing]

— Amanda Kelly (@ajoykelly) May 30, 2021

The sculpture is entitled “Lo Sono” (I am) and it was sold in an auction organized by Art-Rite, one of the rare Italian auction houses that handle exhibitions dedicated exclusively to contemporary art, as per artnet news.

The pre-sale estimate valued the piece between €6,000-9,000, but competing bidders pushed the price tag to €15,000.

How does buying the invisible sculpture actually work? Italy 24 News reported that the work must be placed in a space that allows the dimensions of approximately 4.9x4.9ft (150x150cm) to be free of any obstructions. The “lucky” owner of the invisible sculpture also got a certificate of guarantee of the sculpture's authenticity.

Lo Sono is not the only work of art of its kind under Garau’s belt. In February, at the Piazza Della Scala in Milan, the artist exhibited “Buddha in Contemplation,” a similarly invisible sculpture demarcated by a square of tape on a cobble-stoned walkway.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, he installed “Afrodite Cries” in front of the New York City stock exchange. The effort, evidenced by an empty white circle, was supported by the Italian Cultural Institute.

“You don’t see it but it exists; it is made of air and spirit,” he explained in a video documenting the Milan piece. “It is a work that asks you to activate the power of the imagination, a power that anyone has, even those who don’t believe they have it.”

However, netizens seem to be having trouble tapping into that power. “So you really just taped a square and called that a sculpture?” reads the most-liked comment on the video page.

Earlier, in February 2019, a banana taped to a wall titled, “Comedian” by Marizio Cattelan’s started a media hype at Art Basel Miami Beach in the US. The artwork and many others following that sold for a whopping $120,000 each.

Also Read - Duct-taped banana work selling for $120,000 at Art Basel Miami