maurizio cattelan launches self-miniature treasure hunt

Maurizio Cattelan announces Global Game of Hide-and-Seek

Maurizio Cattelan, contemporary art’s notorious provocateur, is taking his wit from the gallery into the streets with Where is Maurizio?, a treasure hunt across New York, Amsterdam, and London. To mark the release of We are the Revolution, his latest limited-edition self-portrait sculpture, sculptures will be placed in unexpected, everyday locations, from market stalls to bodegas and antique shops, waiting to be found by the quickest and most dedicated seekers. The hunt begins in New York City on September 30th, 2025, when the first clue will be revealed on Avant Arte’s dedicated microsite.

The work plays directly into Cattelan’s long-standing fascination with value, context, and power structures in the art world. Most famously crystallized in Comedian (2019) (found designboom’s previous coverage here), the banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $6.2 million, his practice probes how meaning and price are constructed. Here, that inquiry continues with a playful twist: each hidden edition will be priced according to its setting, ranging from $0.99 at a corner shop to €9,999 in an antiques dealership. Alongside the physical scavenger hunt in New York, digital-only versions will run in Amsterdam and London, with participants solving clues and submitting answers online.

images courtesy of Avant Arte

Cities become Stages with ‘We Are the Revolution’ treasure hunt

The game spans three cities and three sculptures, with each discovery crowning a single winner. Cattelan turns what’s usually a private collecting ritual into a shared citywide adventure. The search turns cities into temporary stages, where passersby might stumble across an artwork that in other contexts requires years of waiting lists and high-stakes bidding.

The object at the heart of this chase is We are the Revolution, a resin, hand-painted miniature that revisits one of the Italian artist’s most iconic gestures. Standing just 23 centimeters tall, the figure reprises his 2000 work Untitled. The work is the latest of Maurizio Cattelan’s revered miniatures, perhaps the most famous of which, La Rivoluzione Siamo Noi (2000), nods to German artist Joseph Beuys and his canonical felt suit. Cattelan’s motto, ‘I am not really an artist,’ flips Beuys’ famous claim that ‘every man is an artist.’

Alongside the three hidden sculptures, the edition is available more conventionally through a run of 1,000 pieces, each hand-painted, individually numbered, and accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity. While the treasure hunt versions will reward speed and luck, the wider edition is accessible via a draw system closing on October 24th, 2025.

We are the Revolution is a resin, hand-painted miniature