Golden calf, bull’s heart, a new shark: Hirst’s latest works may fetch £65m
Artist bypasses galleries and dealers to go straight to Sotheby’s auction
In pictures: Hirst’s new works
The Incredible Journey, by Damien Hirst. An auction at Sotheby’s in September will sell more than 200 pieces of the artist’s work. Photograph: Sotheby’s/PA
A small menagerie of new Damien Hirst pickled animals took a bow yesterday, including a new shark, a zebra, a calf with solid gold horns and hoofs valued at up to £12m, and even a unicorn – a white foal fitted with a resin horn, rather than an apparition from a fairytale.
All have been churned out by his small army of assistants this year for an auction at Sotheby’s in September which will sell more than 200 pieces. The auction is predicted to raise £65m, comfortably setting a new world record for the artist, and blazing a trail which other artists will watch with interest, of bypassing the gallery and dealer system and going straight to auction.
Larry Gagosian said his gallery would probably be buying: “He can certainly count on us to be in the room with paddle in hand.”
Sotheby’s and Hirst have been forging an equally intense relationship. Earlier this year he joined with the singer Bono to lead the RED charity auction at Sotheby’s in New York, which raised over $42m (£21m) with donations from Banksy, Marc Quinn and Anish Kapoor, the most successful charity art auction ever.
Last year Hirst briefly set the auction record at Sotheby’s – £9.65m for Lullaby Spring, a medicine cabinet – for any work by a living artist. However, he was knocked off his perch within a few months by the American pop artist Jeff Koons, whose Hanging Heart sold at another Sotheby’s auction in New York for $23.6m, leaving New York dealer Richard Feigen to include both, along with Andy Warhol, on his personal list of the world’s most over-valued artists.
“Damien Hirst is still an artist punching above his weight – this is a body of work which takes him into new realms,” [Oliver Barker, senior international specialist at the auction house] added. “It would be so easy to say we’ve seen it all before with Hirst, but I think people will be blown away by the scale and ambition of this collection. I think he’s interested in getting work into parts of the world that have not had the opportunity of buying major pieces before, including India, China and Russia – and we’ve certainly had a lot of interest from collectors in these places.”
Religious theme
The top lot, estimated at up to £12m, is The Golden Calf – a title continuing Hirst’s interest in religious themes, referring to the false idol set up and worshipped by the Israelites before an enraged Moses berated them for idolatory. The piece is a tank made of glass and gold-plated steel, holding a real calf with solid 18 carat hoofs, horns and golden disc on its head. A smaller tank piece, The Immaculate Heart – Lost, a bull’s heart pierced with a dagger in formaldehyde, also plays on traditional Catholic imagery.
Last year he created and sold through White Cube the world’s most expensive piece of contemporary art, the platinum and diamond cast of a human skull, For The Love of God. It was sold for £50m to an investment consortium, with Hirst retaining a share and persistent rumours that White Cube is also part owner.