Damien Hirst defies gloom with record-breaking auction (Roundup)

Sep 16, 2008, 17:30 GMT

London - A two-day sale of art work by contemporary British artist Damien Hirst Tuesday set a new record for an auction dedicated to one artist by raising 111 million pounds (198 million dollars), auction house Sotheby's in London said.

The result broke all pre-sale estimates and is a triumph for 43-year-old Hirst, who this week became the first leading artist ever

to sell works directly at auction, cutting out the middlemen.

Hirst, a multimillionaire, has said the motive for his groundbreaking decision was not financial, and he had always hoped that 'the art would outshine the money.'

Among the works sold of the 223 on offer were Hirst's trademark animals in formaldehyde, including The Golden Calf, which fetched 10.3 million pounds on the first night of the sale Monday.

The auction, coming at the height of escalating financial gloom around the world, is seen as proof by analysts that the super-rich remain immune to the credit crunch, commentators said.

The two-day frenzy over Hirst's specially-produced works set a new record for an auction of one artist's work, Sotheby's said.

The result exceeds the previous record set in 1993 for 88 works by Picasso which had stood at 32 million dollars.

'This is probably the most amazing show I've put on,' said Hirst about the auction, entitled Beautiful Inside My Head Forever.

Already on the first night of the sale, bidders had paid 70.5 million pounds for 54 of Hirst's works, exceeding Sotheby's original estimate for the total sale of 65 million pounds.

Among other items sold was The Kingdom, a tiger shark floating in a tank of formaldehyde, which fetched three times its estimate and was sold for a staggering 9.6 million pounds.

A foal in formaldehyde inside a steel and glass tank entitled The Dream sold for 2.3 million pounds, while a butterfly work of art entitled Reincarnated, sold for 1.6 million pounds, well in excess of an upper estimate of 700,000 pounds.

The Golden Calf fetched the highest price ever paid for a Hirst at auction.

'It's another landmark and an astounding day for the art market in a year that has seen many long-standing records demolished, despite the gloomy world economy,' said one analyst.

But critics, questioning Hirst's method of 'mass production' as well as the value and meaning of his art, claim that the art world has gone 'stark raving bonkers.'