308 g (each) | 298 × 163 × 136 mm | Pakistan
Acquired in: René Benko’s Villa Ansaldi, Italy
Description: Black gloves made of artificial leather and layers of black fabric. Strong marks of usage and age. Original signature of Rene Benko on each glove.
Fun facts: An old bleached out signature and plastic that starts dissolving? Are we encountering the fighting gloves of Benko’s youth, with which he learned when to attack and when to cover up?
Benko’s trace: Black boxing gloves, preserved yet worn by time, bearing the faint insignia R. B.. They were never instruments of glory, but emblems of a beginning – a gesture toward discipline, strength, and the will to fight. From these silent relics one senses the first sparks of an empire: the ambition to conquer, not in the ring, but in the world beyond it. Now long out of use, they remain intact to remind us that every rise begins with a training ground.