Tuesday 16 September 2008

Salgsrekord for Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst, The Golden Calf, 215.4 by 320 by 137.2 cm.

Den britiske samtidskunstneren Damien Hirst satte ny salgsrekord i London mandag, da 54 av hans arbeider gikk under hammeren for til sammen 734 millioner kroner.

Verket «The Golden Calf», en okse med et gullprydet hode i en tank av formaldehyd, gikk for 107 millioner kroner da Sotheby’s innledet den to dager lange auksjonen av arbeider signert Hirst.

43 år gamle Hirst sjokkerte kunstverdenen da han nylig kunngjorde at han ville legge 223 nye arbeider direkte ut for salg, uten å la dem gå omveien om kunstgallerier først.
Den tidligere salgsrekorden for verker fra en og samme kunstner ble satt i 1993, da 88 malerier av Pablo Picasso innbrakte til sammen 185 millioner kroner på en og samme dag.

Hvor mye de 167 resterende kunstverkene signert Hirst vil bli solgt for under andre dag av auksjonen i London, tør knapt noen å spå.Hirst er verdens best betalte kunstner.

Sotheby's liste over objektene finner du her.

LONDON.- Damien Hirst's bold bet to bypass his galleries paid off for him when Sotheby's sold his works of art for $127 million on Monday night. The top lot was "The Golden Calf", a 600kg bull whose hooves and horns are cast in solid 18-carat gold, which sold for S18.6m, a record for the artist at auction.

The sale of 54 lots smashed the previous record set in 1993 for 88 works by Picasso. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the celebrated Freeze exhibition curated by Hirst in London, which launched the careers of Hirst and his contemporaries, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever affirms Hirst’s position as a boundary breaker and as an artist who has never worked in the traditional vein.

Damien Hirst said: “After the success of the Pharmacy auction, I always felt I would like to do another auction. It’s a very democratic way to sell art and it feels like a natural evolution for contemporary art. Although there is risk involved, I embrace the challenge of selling my work in this way. I never want to stop working with my galleries. This is different. The world’s changing, ultimately I need to see where this road leads.”

The two-day, 223-lot sale -- the first in which a major contemporary artist has offered a large body of work direct to the public at auction -- is expected to fetch in excess of 65 million pounds, said Sotheby's.
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