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UK artist bucks financial downturn with record sale

British artist Damien Hirst poses in front of his work The Incredible Journey at an auction house in London on Monday last week.  PHOTO: AP

British artist Damien Hirst set a new record on Tuesday after a two-day sale of his work fetched some £111 million (US$198 million), auction house Sotheby’s said.

“We are very, very happy,” a spokesman said on Tuesday after the end of the auction in London, which initially was aimed at topping £65 million for the artist famous for embalming animals in formaldehyde.

The auction, entitled “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever,” broke new ground as the first time an artist has sold a body of work directly, bypassing art galleries who charge a commission of up to 50 percent of the sale price.

It also smashed the record for a sale dedicated to one artist, Sotheby’s said, beating the US$20 million for 88 works by Pablo Picasso sold in 1993.

And it proved there is no shortage of art buyers even in the current economic gloom, which hit new depths after the collapse of US investment giant Lehman Brothers plunged the financial markets into turmoil.

The first day of the Hirst sale on Monday fetched £70.5 million, including The Golden Calf, which sees Hirst return to the style that made his name and put a real calf in a tank of formaldehyde, adding 18-carat gold hooves and horns and a gold disc on its head.

It had been estimated at between £8 million and £12 million, but sold for £10.3 million, establishing a new record for a Hirst work at auction.

Fifty-four lots were sold on Monday and another 80 on Tuesday morning, raising a further £24.3 million, with the afternoon’s sales still to come.

Highlights of Tuesday’s first session included The Dream — a foal in formaldehyde inside a steel and glass tank — sold for £2.3 million, and a butterfly piece called Reincarnated, for £1.6 million, more than twice its £700,000 top estimate.

“I think the market is bigger than anyone knows,” Hirst said after Monday’s sale. “I love art and this proves I’m not alone and the future looks great for everyone!”

Art expert Charles Dupplin said the auction marked a good day for the art market.

“It’s another landmark, an astounding day for the art market in a year that has seen many long-standing records demolished, despite the gloomy world economy,” he said.

Hirst, 43, is already one of the best-selling modern artists in the world, but Sotheby’s said the unconventional auction and 11-day pre-sale exhibition, which attracted 21,000 visitors, had clearly paid off.

“The auction and exhibition have very clearly broadened the market place for Damien Hirst’s work, which is a very significant accomplishment,” Sotheby’s specialist Cheyenne Westphal said.

Last year the artist, who works with a team of about 200, sold a platinum skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds for £50 million in a private sale. It is thought to be the world’s most expensive piece of contemporary art.

Not everyone was happy with this week’s auction. The Stuckist art movement, which promotes figurative art as opposed to conceptual art, said buyers were mad to buy Hirst’s work at such prices.

“It’s quite obvious that the art world has gone stark raving bonkers,” Stuckist co-founder Charles Thomson said.
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