What Happened to Damien Hirst?

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Jan 22nd 2010 at 11:02AM

In 2008, an astounding 65 pieces by Damien Hirst fetched seven-figures each at auction. The total came to $230 million. The numbers are nothing short of staggering, especially when you compare it to what he did six years earlier, when the annual total for his work hit a mere $2 million. Clearly, some excitement was generated, and art collectors rode the wave. The last major sale was conducted at Sotheby's on September 15 and 16. "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever," as it was called, made a killing for the hottest living artist ... right before the financial world went to straight to hell. This bold move, however, led to a period of silence for the artist and stagnation for his collectors.

Shortly after the mortgage market mayhem became a global financial affair, unsold rates for Hirst's work shot from 11 percent to 55 percent by the end of the year. A mere 12 months after his he emptied the insides of his head -- not to mention plenty of inventory -- prices for Hirst's work returned to 2004 levels. A year after buying "Butterfly" painting "I Miss You" in late October 2008, Christie's unloaded it for a mere $450,000, only half what it had paid. In 2004, the piece's initial auction price was $415,000. I suspect this is at least part of the reason why the auction houses backed away from guaranteed minimum pricing ...

With the books closed on 2009, only two pieces by Hirst pierced the million dollar mark, both from the "Butterfly" series. "Tranquility" brought in $1.5 million back in May at an auction in Hong Kong. Almost half a year later, "The Importance of Elsewhere-The Kingdom of Heave" brought in close to $2 million, again at a Hong Kong auction. Both sales came from Seoul, not the usual New York and London communities.

The disappointment continues into 2010. Next month, two pieces from Hirst's "Butterfly" series will go under the gavel, and though the expectations are a tad higher, they still don't rival the prices he used to garner. Christie's is offering one at just shy of $500,000 (low estimate), with Sotheby's going a bit higher at a bit above $575,000 (low estimate). These are certainly improvements over the Christie's Butterfly-buyback of last year, and they do show some advancement relative to the 2004 benchmark. Nonetheless, it isn't enough to offer much hope to collectors who "discovered" the artist during the mad dash of 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Further, the auction houses still seem to be a bit wary. They may be showing a little more zeal with their presale estimates, but they are generally sticking to more reliable artists. The speculators, art market-watchers note, aren't showing up. For Hirst, this is obviously a problem -- and one that is magnified for his devotees. In addition to keeping prices low, this dynamic could make it harder for collectors to unload works by Hirst, effectively causing liquidity in this artist to dry up.

A cynic would say that these collectors are getting what they deserve, but the polite alternative is: "As long as you love what you acquired, the monetary value doesn't matter."

Yeah, say that to the guy with the dead shark.

Tags: art auction, art auctions, art collecting, art collection, art collector, art market, ArtAuction, ArtAuctions, ArtCollecting, ArtCollection, ArtCollector, artist, Artists, ArtMarket, auction, auction house, auction houses, AuctionHouse, AuctionHouses, auctions, Christies, damien hirst, DamienHirst, Hong Kong, HongKong, Sotheby, sothebys

Filed under: Auctions, Art

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Hans Franz Jan 22nd 2010 7:44PM

Ben Lewis made an interesting documentary about Contemporary Art including Hirst
"The Great Contemporary Art Bubble"

Here is a Trailer @ youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gth8_3msnIk

And the Full Version (in German though) @ Veoh (Player required)
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational_and_howto/watch/v19402206sRn8kh9K