Damien Hirst plans to burn thousands of his paintings
Damien Hirst, the artist best known for pickling dead animals in the 1990s, plans to burn thousands of his paintings next month as part of an art-as-currency project. Hirst, who had a net worth of more than £315 million in 2020, will destroy the artworks at his London gallery.
He created 10,000 single dot paintings
In 2016, he created 10,000 one-of-a-kind dot paintings, each with its own title, which was later linked to corresponding NFTs and sold for $2,000 each. Buyers had the option of keeping the NFTs or exchanging them for the physical artwork. "The collector... cannot have both." "This is a one-way transaction, so choose wisely," buyers were advised. According to Heni, a technology company focused on the art market, 24 hours before the deadline of 3 p.m. Wednesday, 4,180 people had chosen to exchange their NFT for physical artwork, with 5,820 choosing to keep their NFTs.
Physical artwork will be set on fire daily
The alternative version will be destroyed, with the physical artworks - oil on paper - being set ablaze on a daily basis beginning on September 9th. Hirst's project, The Currency, was an "interesting experiment," the artist told former Bank of England governor Mark Carney in a YouTube video interview last year. "It's really an installation, but it's a global one... The Currency project requires everyone's participation. It's about the movement of the objects as much as it is about the objects themselves."
In the last few years, NFTs have exploded on the global art market, with major auction houses securing astronomical sums for high-end works. Christie's sold Everyday: the First 5,000 Days by digital artist Beeple for a record $69 million in March 2021.
Who is Damien Hirst?
Hirst, 57, was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the UK art world in the 1990s, alongside Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk, and Sam Taylor-Johnson (formerly Sam Taylor-Wood), and was supported by advertising mogul Charles Saatchi. He created a series of artworks in which dead animals, some of which were dissected, were preserved in formaldehyde, including a shark, a sheep, and a cow. Hirst had a property portfolio worth around £150 million, including a Palladian mansion overlooking Regent's Park and a 2,000-piece art collection that included works by Picasso and Francis Bacon, according to the 2020 Sunday Times rich list.
Selena Mattei
