Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst, 43, just made history – and a boatload of treasure  – with his two-day sale at Sotheby’s auction house in London.  He’s the first living artist to sell work directly through an auction house rather than a gallery*. Final figures (get ready to puke): 218 of 223 works sold for a total of $212,000,000 CAD.  10% goes to his manager, so subtract $21m CAD.  Sotheby’s took $30m CAD in buyer’s premiums (when you successfully bid at auction you’re charged a fee on top of the hammer price).  Production costs to make the 223 pieces are estimated to be around $50 million.  So Damien nets, before tax, $100 million.  And everybody knows the rich don’t pay tax.

Oh yeah, and the work?  This was about art after all, wasn’t it?  Sotheby’s made a pretty comprehensive website for the show, titled “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”, but all that’s left after the feeding frenzy is this video.

*What’s the difference between selling at auction vs. the gallery?  The top commercial galleries have waiting lists and choose who to sell to.  You can be the richest dude in the world and not be able to buy the ‘best’ art.  It’s all secret deals – which means the people who are allowed to buy don’t even know how much the last guy paid; they could be paying twice as much but have to smile because it’s a ‘priviledge’ to be allowed to buy at all.  By auctioning the pieces off in public it’s totally transparent: everybody sees how much is paid and everybody gets a shot at buying.  Hirst’s gamble of democratizing the process could revolutionize the entire art world if other high-profile artists follow his act.