Would You Buy an Invisible Sculpture? Someone Did

Tiffany Sun

September 26, 2025

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a well-known folktale by Hans Christian Anderson, telling the tale of an emperor who was tricked into purchasing new magical clothes that were only visible to the “wise” for a large sum, except the clothes didn’t actually exist. To avoid being pinned as foolish, everyone, including the emperor himself, paraded around acting as if they saw the clothes. This whole con only ended when an innocent child spoke the truth.

Now, this folktale may seem rather absurd, but what if I told you someone bought an “invisible” sculpture for $18,300?

In May of 2021, artist Salvatore Garau sold his sculpture, titled lo sono (“I am”), at an Italian auction house for €15,000, approximately 18 thousand US dollars. The piece of art was originally valued at €6,000-9,000, but the prices were bumped higher by competitive bidders.

Lo sono is “immaterial,” essentially meaning it doesn’t exist. A Spanish news outlet, Diario AS, reports that Garau said, “The vacuum 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.” Garau elucidates how lo sono is about embracing the nothingness, and the sculpture truly reflects that concept in a rather literal way.

The winner of this auction was presented with a certificate for their purchase as well as instructions from Garau to exhibit the sculpture in a 5 by 5 foot unobstructed space inside a private house. Garau goes on to explain that “When I decide to ‘exhibit’ an immaterial sculpture in a given space, that space will concentrate a certain amount and density of thoughts at a precise point, creating a sculpture that, from my title, will only take the most varied forms.”

To many people’s surprise, this is not the only invisible sculpture Garau has created. In February 2021, he showcased Buddha in Contemplation at Milan’s Piazza Della Scala, a sculpture merely marked by a singular piece of tape on the cobblestone floor. Garau expresses how Buddha in Contemplation activates the imagination in the viewer. Apart from Europe, Garau has also shown his work Afrodite Cries in front of the New York Stock Exchange, and LOVE, IMMENSE LOVE, in Jerusalem.

Although the saying goes that there is no such thing as bad art, and the interpretation of artwork is entirely subjective and unique to the viewer, Garau’s invisible sculptures really push the boundaries of that definition and have many people reconsidering what exactly can be reasonably considered as art.