Monday, September 15, 2008

Damien Hirst




Some hours ago at Sotheby's auction house, he grossed 127 million (US) dollars with the sale of 56 works. At a time of extreme economic pressure, with the credit crunch hitting harder than a jab from Zab Judah, it's amazing he even sold anything, let alone for such a staggering amount of coin. His 'Golden Calf' went for 10.3 million pounds, proving itself to be quite the literal cash cow, although at least 18 works struck above the million pound mark. A pretty amazing turn of events for the 43 year old, who is as much a master of filling galleries and art columns as he is his bank account, single handedly lifting the net worth of Sotheby's stock by 1.1 percent.

As Andy Warhol once alluded to, business simply is the best art, because nothing can be more impressive/inspiring/amazing than than belittling over 95% of the worlds populations life savings in 90 minutes, whilst "off playing snooker somewhere in Camden". Goal well achieved Mr Hirst. I hope the masses of gold trickling into your most industrious smelters may gild the hoofs of many dead animals in the future.

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