Salvatore Garau managed to sell something you cannot see or called as “Invisible Sculpture”. The Italian artist offered an immaterial sculpture titled Io Sono (I Am) at auction. The final price soared well past expectations, fetching over €15,000 roughly $18,000 or estd. 15lacs in INR. Garau frames that empty space as full of potential. He refers to it as a vacuum packed with energy. By invoking the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, he argues that even nothing carries weight and transforms into us.
Buyer walks away with a certificate of authenticity, plus instructions for displaying the work. It must occupy a roughly five-by-five-foot area free of obstruction. Lighting and climate control remain optional, since the work exists in the mind more than in physical form.
Garau challenges what we consider art. Selling empty space might seem absurd, yet it sparks a deeper question: do ideas carry the same weight as matter? He draws a parallel between creating an invisible form and shaping a concept of God a being we cannot see but believe in.
This sculpture stands out even in the world of conceptual art. Previous works such as Buddha in Contemplation in Milan and Afrodite Piange in New York echoed similar ideas by marking invisible presences with tape or circles. Reactions range from admiration for bold creativity to outright skepticism. Those who accept this as art see it as a revolution in perception. Others think paying for empty air borders on absurd. In the end Garau invites us to harness imagination. Sometimes the most powerful art is not what hangs on walls, but what happens inside our own heads.
