Collectors are paying millions for invisible ‘art’: Hoax

27-year-old artist Lana Newstrom says she is the first artist in the world to create invisible “art,” in that she literally sells nothing to her collectors.

Reports that Newstrom’s art is selling for such high prices spread quickly over social media.

Online comment box’s were filled by angry art fans, critiquing the madness that someone could sell nothing for something. Rumour of the 'invisable art' high price tag also spread over Twitter.

However the entire story is a complete hoax.

The radio documentary, with which the story came into being, was created for a segment on “This is That”, a satirical current affairs program on the CBC.

That show’s about page states that the program “doesn’t just talk about the issues, it fabricates them.”

During the documentary the fake artist told reporters “just because you can’t see anything, doesn’t mean I didn’t put hours of work into creating a particular piece”.

“Art is about imagination and that is what my work demands of the people interacting with it. You have to imagine a painting or sculpture is in front of you,” says Newstrom.

“So there’s something right here?” one of the hosts asks, seemingly pointing to a blank wall.

“Oh yes,” the artist responds. “That’s probably my favourite piece.”

Adding fuel to the fire, Lana’s agent, a man calling himself Mr Paul Rooney says that she might be on of the most interesting artists living today.

“When she describes what you can’t see, you begin to realize why one of her invisible works can fetch upwards of a million dollars,” he said.

An accompanying photograph helped sell the story, which being for radio, only included audio.

However one Twitter user spotted a problem with the photograph purporting to show Newstrom's work at a gallery in New York. It was photoshopped.

Ultimately the story of a 27-year old artist making millions for creating invisible art is not true.

It was a segment on a comedy radio show, aired on the CBC network in September 2014.

But it had everybody going for a while.