Remember how Damien Hirst said he’d never make his meh dot paintings again, forcing their market value to skyrocket? Remember how he then went psyche! and started making dots again, showing them off at 11 simultaneous exhibits in all of the Gagosian galleries? Here’s his latest nifty hustle. If you manage to visit all 11 shows before they close, Hirst will personally give you spots, ahem — “a signed spot print by Damien Hirst, dedicated personally to you.” You have a month to jet set from Hong Kong to Athens to Paris to New York. Go. [ANY via DI, related]
Damien Hirst
Don’t Tucker Yourselves Out On This One Because Next Up Is The “Take A Picture Of Yourself Posing Lewdly With Every One Of Hirst’s ‘Animal-in-Formaldehyde’ Pieces” Challenge
By Bess Levin
IN 2008 just over $270m-worth of art by Damien Hirst was sold at auction, a world record for a living artist. By 2009 Mr Hirst’s annual auction sales had shrunk by 93%—to $19m—and the 2010 total is likely to be even lower. The collapse in the Hirst market can partly be ascribed to the recession. But more important are the lingering effects of a two-day auction of new work by Mr Hirst that Sotheby’s launched in London on September 15th 2008, the first session of which took place the very evening that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. The average auction price for a Hirst work in 2008 was $831,000. So far in 2010 it is down to $136,000. [The Economist]
The buyer was not identified but there are probably only a handful of people with a) the cash on hand b) a serious interest in Hirst’s work c) a burning itch for a hot pink little number to tool around the streets of CT in…
Peruvian police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden in a crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the drug surgically implanted inside the birds. Acting on a tip, officers stopped a Turismo Ejecutivo SRL bus outside the city of Tarapoto in the central jungle state of San Martin, officials said Monday.
Police were puzzled when they found the turkeys in the crate, but didn’t find the cocaine, Tarapoto’s anti-drug police chief, Otero Gonzalez, told the Associated Press. They then noticed that the two turkeys were bloated.
“Lifting up the feathers of the bird, in the chest area, police detected a handmade seam,” he said.
A veterinarian extracted 11 oval-shaped plastic capsules containing 1.9 kilograms (4.2 pounds) of cocaine from one turkey and 17 capsules with 2.9 kilograms (6.4 pounds) from the other, he said.
Both turkeys survived the removal.
Peru police seize cocaine sewn inside live turkeys [AP]
Earlier: What We Can Learn From The Mexicans
Hey there aspiring Little Steves– nows your chance to sidle up to the big guy and remark, “Looks like we have the same taste in art, though mine clearly veers a little more towards the Renaissance Fair-inspired, gay works.” Artist Damien Hirst is selling some new pieces from his ‘animal-in-formaldehyde’ schtick collection. Up for grabs at Sotheby’s from September 15-16 will be “The Golden Calf,” a calf in a– wait for it– glass tank of formaldehyde, “The Incredible Journey,” a zebra in a– wait for it– glass tank of formaldehyde, and “The Dream Foal,” the unicorn pictured above in a– wait for it– glass tank of formaldehyde, among others. Get them while they’re hot. One item we’d recommend bowing out of is “The Kingdom,” a tiger shark in a glass tank, which cannot please Stevie-boy, who is supposed to be the only one who owns such a display of badassery. Hirst had originally promised SC that the follow-up shark would be submerged in a tank of jello, in order to clearly delineate alpha v. beta fish, but it’s been whispered that he ditched the gelatin at the last second, just to “see what happens.” Spoiler alert: since what will happen is the BG ripping your face off, you’d be wise to let him have this one, unless of course you’re into that sort of thing, in which case, proceed.
Artist Hirst Jumps The Shark, Cuts Out Dealers [NYP]
Golden calf, bull’s heart, a new shark: Hirst’s latest works may fetch £65m [Guardian]
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