Damien Hirst: Three works of art from the 90s were only created in 2017

Damien Hirst is one of the most renowned contemporary artists. His diamond-encrusted human skull ‘For the Love of God’ sold for $75 million and is one of the most expensive contemporary works of art. The British became known to the general public with his animals pickled in formaldehyde – namely the tiger shark. In three such works of art it is now suspected that the artist wanted to keep the date of creation hidden.

Hirst had success with formaldehyde animals in the 1990s. The debate this sparked motivated him to also preserve other animals in this way. The sheep entitled ‘Away from the Herd’ (1994) also became world famous. This was after an exhibition visitor tried to sabotage the work with ink. The incident and subsequent media frenzy brought both the sheep and Hirst back into the headlines, which may have satisfied the artist.

Hirst is considered a perfect marketer who selects his potential buyers mainly based on their account balance. Instead of targeting classical art enthusiasts, he targets financially powerful Russian oligarchs and oil sheikhs. Today he plays in the same financial league as his clients. Depending on estimates, his fortune would be between 700 million and over a billion euros. The 58-year-old was one of the first well-known artists (alongside Wolfgang Beltracchi) to release his own NFT collection on the Ethereum blockchain.

As the ‘Guardian’ now exclusively reports, for at least three of his installations it is suspected that the publicly communicated dating does not correspond to the time of creation. These are animals pickled in formaldehyde. They date from the 1990s. They were actually produced by a Hirst employee at a workshop in Dudbridge, Gloucestershire in 2017.

Artworks include a pigeon (“Dove,” 1999), two twin calves (“Cain and Abel,” 1994), and a shark cut into three parts (“Myth Explored, Explored, Exploded,” 1993–1999). According to The Guardian’s investigation, the three works of art were shown at exhibitions in Hong Kong, New York, Munich, London and Oxford from 2018 – as Hirst has worked since the 1990s.

Confronted with the inconsistencies, the world-famous artist cleverly wriggles out of the affair: “The animals preserved in formaldehyde are conceptual art.” What matters is not when they were physically realized, but when the idea for them arose. That is why he uses the time of the idea in some of his works of art.

In fact, artists are free to choose when to date their works. There is no art law or even an art police that controls the dating of contemporary works of art.

According to the Guardian, Hirst’s approach is in stark contrast to common practice in the art industry. There is agreement. The dating always refers to the actual realization.

His statements during the first presentation of the three works of art in Hong Kong in 2018 cast an additional unfavorable light on Hirst. At the time, he said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that he liked the artworks “more today than when he made them.” With these statements he gave the impression that a long period had passed since its founding. The Guardian also has information that employees of his company Science were instructed to artificially age the works of art – as if they were actually produced in the 1990s.

Hirst’s lawyers have now taken over communications with the Guardian – and they insist it is wrong to claim their client wanted to mislead the public.

The Guardian does not go so far as to say that the artist wanted to increase the price of the works of art with his ‘special’ statement. But the accusation inherently resonates. Because the formaldehyde shark is considered an icon of the 90s. The work that follows can benefit from this – and automatically experience an increase in value. However, working less from 2017 onwards.

(together)