Artist's invisible sculpture gets auctioned off for $18,000 and people are in disbelief

Art is meant to reflect a person's perspective, creativity and thoughts. However, Italian artist Salvatore Garau has been creating sculptures and art pieces that are not only intangible but invisible as well. What shocks people even more is the amount art aficionados are willing to pay for Garau's artwork. According to Artnet, one of Garau's "immaterial sculptures" was auctioned off for $18,3000 in 2021 and the sculpture literally doesn't exist.

The 70-year-old artist holds a polarizing opinion about his creation, especially when compared to the views of spectators on conceptual grounds. While talking to Spanish news outlet Diario AS, Gaurau revealed that the invisible artwork, titled Lo Sono (I Am), "finds form in its own nothingness." "The void is nothing more than a space full of energy, and even if we empty it and there is nothing left, according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that nothing has a weight,” he told the outlet. “Therefore, it has energy that condenses and transforms into particles, that is, into us.” Lo Sono was presented at an Italian auction house called Art-Rite where the pre-sale estimate of the piece was between €6,000 ($6,600)-9,000 ($9,900).

However, the bidders at the auction kept taking the notch on the price tag higher and it eventually went up to €15,000 ($18,300),. The buyer of Lo Sono took home a certificate of authenticity and a set of instructions from Garau. The artwork must be exhibited in a private house in a minimum five-by-five-foot space that doesn't have any obstruction around it. “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, will only take the most varied forms,” Garau further told the outlet. “After all, don’t we shape a God we’ve never seen?”

Turns out, Lo Sono isn't the first piece of invisible artwork from Garau either. A video posted on his YouTube channel displayed a similar invisible sculpture at the Piazza Della Scala in Milano. In this invisible piece, titled “Buddha In Contemplation,” there was nothing visible to the onlookers except a square made of white tape on the cobblestone walkway of the neighborhood. “You don’t see it but it exists; it is made of air and spirit,” he explained in the video. “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.”

The comment section was filled with people expressing their disbelief at how Garau can master the craft of selling nothing in the name of art. A YouTube user, @brettfortin210, joked, "What a world-class salesman like the guy can sell you air and make you feel like you've just struck gold." @jeffmorrison5083 commented, "Oh, man. I have the identical one in a shoe box in my closet. I’m going to dust mine off and display it." @Grayhome quipped, "Scamming rich art collectors is an art in its own way." @nf191 added, "That's brilliant because he's now famous, and also maybe the one who bought that piece is more known. Also, the story behind it is sophisticated and explainable and it made people buy the piece. He's an artist, and he uses fools as his materials."