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quick ~ 50MM for damien, thats a nice weekend...
Damien Hirst's Two-Day Sale Brings in $199 Million
09.17.08
Damien Hirst concluded his sale “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever,” a two-day auction of his latest work at Sotheby’s in London, on Tuesday by bringing in $73.1 million (including buyer’s premium), reports Kelly Crow for the Wall Street Journal. Overall, the novelty of the auction and the artist’s populist appeal helped generate total sales of $199 million. Of the 167 pieces offered during a daylong sale of lower-priced paintings and sculptures, the majority sold near the top of their estimates and only three failed to find buyers. Bidding seemed strongest for the artist’s works featuring butterflies, perhaps because the artist has pledged not to make any more of these works, along with his kaleidoscope-like “spin” paintings. At one point toward the end of the sale, auctioneer Harry Dalmeny flushed out a few more bidders for a pair of spin paintings by reminding the crowd, “They’re running out, ladies and gentlemen.” Hirst says he's not planning any other sales, at least for now. New York dealer Mary Boone says other artists will likely begin organizing single-owner auctions whenever they believe they have reached their peak price levels in galleries or want to try expanding their global audience. But she says artists may also need Hirst’s charisma in order to pull it off: “The circus-like atmosphere of this sale certainly helped him, but Damien has always thrived on being over the top.”