At today's Phillips de Pury & Co. auction, Now: Art of the 21st century, handbag designer (and possibly former artist) Damien Hirst is back on the scene with a major auction house. A year ago, he divested his collection of his own work, ostensibly sensing that the market for him was about to crash (which, in fact, it did). Phillips de Pury isn't making any big bets today with Hirst, though. For now, it has two lithographs of Hirst's famous(ly expensive) skull up for sale. For the Love of God, Laugh; The Diamond Skull is listed at £10,000 - £15,000.

Peter Fuss, on the other hand, seems to have nailed it. His piece, For the Laugh of God,, shown above, is also up for grabs. It's a knockoff skull, listed for a little more than half the price of the lithos (£6,000 - £8,000), but the title conveys the spirit. Created when Hirst was peddling the original skull for the princely sum of £50 million ($100 million at the time), For the Laugh of God was originally offered for £100, as a way to help Britain reclaim this "treasure."

The blog "Modelator," which covers Polish art, observed in June 2007, "Our British friends, we are coming to rescue you! Like the cheap Polish labour well known to you, Polish artist Peter Fuss wishes to relieve the British nation from such a great expense." This was in response to Guardian journalist Jonathan Jones, who declared, "We must buy the diamond skull for Britain."

While Hirst's skull cost a fortune even in materials, For the Laugh of God consists of close to 9,900 pieces of glass made to look like diamonds and entailed an investment of £250 and 18 hours. Now, it's up for more than 40 times that amount, while Hirst is reduced to selling posters.

Last year, British artist Damien Hirst promised to create the most expensive work of art ever with "For the Love of God". Now, he is set to reveal this work next month at the appropriately named Beyond Belief exhibition at the White Cube gallery in London. A life-sized, platinum skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds totaling 1,106.18 carats, the piece is intended to be a celebration of life. If it sells for the asking price of $99 million, Hirst will find himself on a price level with Pablo Picasso and Gustav Klimt. The show also will include two new series of works by Hirst: "Fact Paintings", which depicts the birth of the artist's son by cesarean section, and "Body Paintings", based on images of cancer and other terminal illnesses. A private viewing is scheduled for June 2nd and the exhibition opens to the public on June 3rd.