The art critic Giancarlo Politi, founder of Flash Art, remembered Germano Celant with these words: “I was present at the very first meetings in Turin in the run-up to what was to become Arte Povera. It was in early 1967 and Marcello Levi, the great Turin-born collector, had rented a large space, the Deposito Arte Presente, or DAP, where he had collected works by Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Mario Merz, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gilberto Zorio, Ugo Nespolo, Gianni Piacentino, and Piero Gilardi. [...] One day, when all the artists were gathered together, along with Gian Enzo Sperone, Tucci Russo and myself, Germano Celant arrived from Genoa. Dressed all in black, he took the floor at the centre of the conclave and addressed the artists, saying: ‘We need to establish a military-style relationship between us. None of you may put on an exhibition without the consent of everyone else, none of you will be able to show your works in a museum or gallery unless you are authorised by everyone. Nobody can sell a work unless we all agree.’ The baton of command remains with me (he did not say this, but he made it quite clear). [...] Germano’s word always had great impact, and I am still surprised by how the great Genoese critic managed to hold sway over such a group of crazy hotheads.”