How much would you pay for a sculpture?

Five dollars? Ten? Twenty?

How about $18,000?

And what if the sculpture is transparent?

I don’t mean, to be clear, that its purpose is obvious.

I mean that it’s clear — it’s invisible.

As reported by the Daily Mail, earlier this month, some lucky art fan snagged Salvatore Garau’s masterpiece I am.

The price: £13,000 — 18,426.46 in American dollars.

Speaking to Hypebeast, the 67-year-old artist described his work as a “vacuum” — “the vacuum is nothing more than a space full of energy.”

Prepare to delve deep, philosophical fiends:

“Even if we empty it and there is nothing left, according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that ‘nothing’ has a weight.”

The Guardian explains:

[Heisenberg’s] uncertainty principle…tells us that there is a fuzziness in nature, a fundamental limit to what we can know about the behavior of quantum particles and, therefore, the smallest scales of nature. Of these scales, the most we can hope for is to calculate probabilities for where things are and how they will behave. Unlike Isaac Newton’s clockwork universe, where everything follows clear-cut laws on how to move and prediction is easy if you know the starting conditions, the uncertainty principle enshrines a level of fuzziness into quantum theory.

If you couldn’t follow that, perhaps it’s why you can’t create things that are invisible.

Moving on, the sculpture — which was auctioned by Art-Rite — is meant to be displayed in a private space, occupying a 5-foot square.

And please — per the Mail — no “artificial lighting or air conditioning.”

The art world is definitely one of wonder.

As I covered in 2019, a banana peel sold for $120,000.

Read all about it:

Putting the 'Peel' in Sex Appeal: A Piece of Art Consisting of a Banana Taped to the Gallery's Wall Sells for $120,000 https://t.co/pMxBeoJqHi

— RedState (@RedState) December 7, 2019

Complete the saga, courtesy of its heartbreaking conclusion:

Horticultural Horror: The Art World Loses a Masterpiece as a Gallery Patron Grabs the $120,000 Banana and Eats It https://t.co/k3szFEur6P

— RedState (@RedState) December 8, 2019

Back to Salvatore, he’s got a history of innovative expression.

From the Mail:

His previous works include a 2005 abstract painting on a 650ft piece of tarpulin, which was then hung across scaffolding around a church in Milan.

And in 2006, he produced Ichthys Sacro Stagno, creating large ponds on the floors of three churches, which he then filled with fish from nearby lakes.

I am follows Buddha in Contemplation, an earlier invisible work:

Buddha in Contemplation displayed in Milan.
Read more from #HeadlinesThatMatter in today’s edition:https://t.co/TDgnJ4Coiq

Video: @/salvatore_garau on IG#NFT #invisiblesculpture #SalvatoreGarau #nothing #Heisenberg #uncertaintyprinciple #BuddhainContemplation #loSono #IAm pic.twitter.com/quUWk7G6xW

— Splainer (@splainerin) June 4, 2021

As for his latest, how does the new owner know they’ve got the real and only one?

What if — in a scheme to make a profit — Salvatore secretly manufactured multiple non-existent clones of the non-existent original? That would lessen the value of its non-existence by an imaginary magnitude.

Rest at ease — the buyer was given a Certificate of Authenticity.

In response to the Buddha in Contemplation video, some online commented that perhaps it was a joke.

On the contrary, of course, art is serious business.

And serious business has now been done — to the tune of over 18,000 smackeroos.

My congratulations to the auction’s highest bidder.

One plus: They won’t have to stress over where the piece will fit.

My advice to the proud purchaser: I know Salvatore insists you need five square feet, but how ’boutcha just go ahead and put it wherever you want.

And for you eccentric collectors kicking yourselves for missing out on I am, I have wonderful news: The culture’s currently exploding with esoteric offerings.

Something unique could yet be yours:

Brooklyn Man Creates a Cryptocurrency Token Using Recordings of His and His Friends' Flatulence https://t.co/DYvQPvCDrD

— RedState (@RedState) March 20, 2021

Happy bidding.

-ALEX

See more pieces from me:

Watch: Amazon Driver Brutally Beats Elderly Woman After Alleged ‘White Privilege’ Remark

Construction Site Flies Flag for Memorial Day, Loop on the Crane Causes Racism Scare

University Student Govt. Calls for ‘Content Warnings’ Before Classwork Shared on Abuse

Find all my RedState work here.

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