The prankster art of Maurizio Cattelan

David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

Inside the central hall of New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, no art is being shown on the walls. Instead, it's hanging in the middle of the building's central void - part of a massive retrospective works by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.

Curator Nancy Spector assembled the massive retrospective of almost all of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's works. Entitled simply "All," the show represents 128 of his weirdly comic and sometimes disturbing pieces.

"Maurizio Cattelan: All" has proven to be a big hit at the Guggenheim, with more than 4,000 visitors a day. "People are staying a really long time, because every work has its own story," said curator Nancy Spector.

Maurizio Cattelan's "Untitled" (2001), comprised of wax, pigment, human hair, fabric, and polyester resin. Cattelan has been called "the art world's favorite jokester" and a "holy fool whose jokes reveal us to ourselves."

Paolo Pellion di Persano/Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan's "Novecento" (1997), featuring a taxidermied horse, leather saddle, rope, and pulley. In this work, shown in a baroque salon at the Castello di Rivoli museum in Turin, the horse's legs were enlongated to give the impression that the force of gravity stretched it down to the ground.

At New York's Guggenheim Museum artist Maurizio Cattelan, 51, meets with CBS News correspondent Serena Altschul who is glad to learn the prankster-artist did not (as he has been known to do) send an imposter to do the interview.

A view of Cattelan's "Untitled" (2007) which had hung on the exterior of the Synagoge Stommeln in Cologne, Germany.

Cattelan does not actually construct the works, leaving that to master craftsmen he hires. Instead, he dreams up the ideas. "I have to admit, I don't know how to draw, how to sculpt," he told Altschul. "I am a total failure."

An installation of the absurdist work "La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour)" by Maurizio Cattelan, which shows Pope John Paul II lying on the ground after being stuck by a meteorite (seen displayed in Warsaw's prestigious Zacheta Gallery in December 2000).

This piece caused the director of the Warsaw National Gallery of Art to lose her job when it was shown there. According to curator Nancy Spector people reacted violently: "In Warsaw, actually, members of Parliament actually went in when it was on exhibit and tried to right the figure, to pick up the figure and somehow rectify the situation!"

A photographer takes a photo of an installation by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan showing Polish-born Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite at Warsaw's prestigious Zacheta gallery on Friday, Dec. 15, 2000.

A view of the installation "Maurizio Cattelan: All," an exhibition of sculptures by the Italian artist at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, N.Y., November 4, 2011-January 22, 2012.

Artist Maurizio Cattelan at the opening of his exhibition, "Maurizio Cattelan" All," at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, N.Y.

For Cattelan getting to this show has been quite a journey. The son of a truck driver and cleaning lady, he was a poor student with a vivid imagination.

A view of the Maurizio Cattelan installation during the MGMT performance at the 2011 Guggenheim International gala at the Guggenheim Museum on November 10, 2011 in New York City.

Porcelain figures - part of the 2003 art piece titled "Good Versus Evil" by artist Maurizio Cattelan - are on view at Christie's auction house in London, Oct. 10, 2007.

"Mini Me" (1999) by Maurizio Cattelan - rubber, resin, synthetic hair, paint, and clothing.

Maurizio Cattelan's scuplture "La Rivoluzione siamo noi (We are the Revolution)" (2000), on exhibit at the Migros, Zurich, Switzerland, was made from polyester resin, wax, pigment, felt suit, and metal coat rack.

A Christie's auction house security guard keeps an eye on full-size NYPD wax figures " Frank and Jamie" by Maurizio Cattelan, during the preview of Christie's New York Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale, May 9, 2005 at Christie's in New York.

Maurizio Cattelan's "Him" (2001), fashioned from polyester resin, wax, pigment, human hair, and suit.

Visitors walk and stand around the sculpture "Him" by artist Maurizio Cattelan in the "Haus der Kunst" art museum in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2003.

A visitor looks at "Untitled" (2009) by artist Maurizio Cattelan, during a press preview of the exhibition "Pop Life: Art in a Material World," at Tate Modern in London, Tuesday, September 29, 2009. The exhibition examines the ways in which artists have built up personae and brands for themselves since the 1980s.

Visitors look at the work "All" (2007) by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008 during a press event at the Kunsthaus in Bregenz, Austria, where an exposition of Cattelan's works was on display.

An untitled work by Italian Mauricio Cattelan is shown at the Biennial International of contemporary art at the Cartuja Monastery in Sevilla, Spain, October 5, 2004.

Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan poses with his work "Bregenz," Jan. 29, 2008, during a press event at the Kunsthaus in Bregenz, Austria.

When asked if the Guggenheim retrospective represented success for him, Cattelan replied, "Success is waking up and going to swim, doing what you like. Trying to, like you say, live your life at your best."

The "Drummer Doll" playing a drum, a sculpture by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, sits on the roof of the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig in Cologne, Germany on May 15, 2003. The sound of the computer-controlled 1.5-meter large drum was heard, leading neighbors to protest against the project. According to the museum's spokesman, the artist was inspired by German author Gunter Grass' book "The Tin Drum."

"We" by Maurizio Cattelan is displayed during the "8 1/2" Exhibition" press preview, held during the Pitti Immagine Uomo 79 on January 11, 2011 in Florence, Italy.

The reverse of a trophy head on the wall: "Untitled 2007" by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, on show June 3, 2009, during the opening of Venice's Punta della Dogana, a modern art museum created from a disused customs house at the entrance to Venice's Grand Canal.

A man passes by "A perfect day (Massimo)" by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, during the exhibition "Big Brother, the artist facing tyrants" at the Palais des Arts in Dinard, France, June 27, 2011. The exhibition showed political and provocative works from about thirty contemporary artists.

CBS News 24/7