“Anatomy of an Angel” (foreground) by Damien Hirst on display at Sotheby’s in London. (Click to watch a video on the website of Sotheby’s)

One thing about the hyped auction of new works by Damien Hirst next week at Sotheby’s in London is immediately impressive: its sheer scale. It would be wrong to compare this to a private gallery show held in an auction house. The size of it, 10 large rooms and more than 200 works, is more like a major career retrospective at Tate Modern.

It feels about the same dimension as the Cy Twombly exhibition at the Tate this summer. But that contained the work of a long lifetime while this is all signed and dated 2008. Nonetheless, joining Rembrandt and Michelangelo in the Pantheon seems to be the final goal.

Interestingly enough, Sotheby’s stock fell 8.4 percent yesterday amid concern that the global art market can absorb only so many dead animals in formaldehyde.

Luckily, museums and their collections are not (yet) publicly traded.

Read more Hirst-news on Bloomberg.com
Watch an interview with Damien Hirst on Bloomberg News Video
Visit the website of Sotheby’s

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Update 16.09.2008 by Juha van ‘t Zelfde

On the day the global financial markets are rocking in the turmoil of a Wall Street meltdown, Damien Hirst is rewriting the economic rules of the art world with his auction of Beautiful Inside My Head Forever , a ‘greatest hits sale’ at Sotheby’s. According to the Guardian, the first night sale brought in a staggering £70.5 million.

Read more at the Guardian and Artforum

Related posts:  On day of Wall Street’s worst loss since 2001, super-rich embrace Damien Hirst  //  Artist comes to the rescue of Tate museum  //  Dutch Museums Auction Artwork On eBay  //  Morbid humor sells: Hirst’s ’skull’ hits Amsterdam  //  Crowds are suffering for their art at the Tate Modern  //

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